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THE NEW WORLD 



THE NEW WORLD 



BY 



FRANK COMERFORD 




D, APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1920 






COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



SEP 23 I! 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CU597492 



DEDICATED 

TO 

THE TOILER'S TRUEST FRIEND 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

MAY HIS COUNSEL BE WITH US TO-DAY 
AND DURING ALL THE DAYS TO COME 

Let every man remember that to violate the law 
is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the 
Charter of his own and his children's liberty. Let rever- 
ence for the laws be breathed by every American mother 
to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be 
taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it 
be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs. 
Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legis- 
lative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in 
short, let it become the political slogan of the nation. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 
VI. 

VII. 
VIII. 

IX. 
X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 



PAGE 

Problems Facing a Stricken World .... i 

The Problem of Europe's Poverty .... 13 

The Will to Work 27 

Unrest before the War was an Acorn, To-day 

it is an Oak 38 

A Tragedy of Politics 54 

The Word Bolshevism has Seized upon the 

Imagination of the World 67 

The Test 79 

Russia's Historical Background — From Rurik 

to Nicholas 90 

Russia Out of Balance 101 

The Beginning of the Dictatorship — The Birth 

of Bolshevism 118 

The Soviet Machine 132 

The Soviet Definition of Liberty .... 148 

Clash of Fact and Theory 160 

The Failure of the Socialization of Industry . 1 70 

The Abuse of Power 183 

The Third International 192 

Intermeddling in Russia 215 

Bolshevism in the United States 224 

The New World 250 

Appendices: 

I. Declaration of the Rights of the La- 
boring and Exploited People . . . 269 
II. A Declaration by the Representatives 
of the United States of America in 
Congress Assembled 275 

III. Constitution 281 

IV. Constitution of the United States of 

America 306 

V. Platform of Communist International . 333 
VI. Manifesto of the Communist Inter- 
national 347 



THE NEW WORLD 

CHAPTER I 
PROBLEMS FACING A STRICKEN WORLD 

Four years of pagan hell left Europe stunned and 
staggering. The world had gone through the reddest 
and blackest night in all the biography of the planet. 
With the signing of the Armistice the people tried to 
shake off the nightmare and grope back to light. To-day, 
twenty months after, they are still trudging and stum- 
bling, paralyzed and benumbed. The problem to-day of 
making the world safe for civilization is more serious 
than was the question of making it safe for democracy 
nearly six years ago. If there was cause for sacrifice 
then, there is greater reason for it now. If there was 
occasion for a military morale then, there is need of an 
industrial morale to-day. Freedom called men to fight 
that autocracy might not rule the world. The present 
issue is not only freedom, it is life — the chance to eat, 
to be warm, to sleep. A tired, wounded, worn and weary 
people face the to-morrows with little faith and much 
fear. 

I went to Europe to see for myself. I was unattached, 



2 THE NEW WORLD 

a free agent. I was not a member of any mission — I had 
no preconceived opinions. I sought facts — the human 
facts. I looked into the eyes of the people, walked the 
streets, talked with men, women and children, rich and 
poor, humble and powerful, journalists, bankers, lawyers, 
preachers, actors, government officials, miners, teamsters, 
factory hands, labor leaders, radicals, conservatives, chil- 
dren of the streets and women at their washtubs, farmers 
and peasants, tenants and landlords. I searched official 
records and pursued official figures. I listened to opinions, 
heard speeches, listened to the conversations of the cafes 
and the talk in the cheap restaurants. 

I knew that few Americans would have a chance to 
go to Europe to see and hear for themselves, that the 
millions in America would be compelled to depend upon 
the eyes and ears of others for information concerning 
the problem of world importance, a problem which is 
bound to involve us — we are part of it. No country is 
entirely independent; nations are interdependent to the 
same extent and for the same reasons as individuals. 
Europe looks to America for salvation as a dying man 
looks to God for mercy. If the United States adopts 
the policy of leaving Europe alone on the theory that 
we have done enough for her, Europe will be plunged 
into the savagery of revolution. Faith in America, be- 
lief that America will sustain her and help her carry the 
awful load is keeping Europe from succumbing. This 
is about the only thing she has left. 

What is America? It is not the buildings and banks, 
the railroads, the shops, the factories and the land; it is 



PROBLEMS FACING A STRICKEN WORLD 3 

the one hundred and ten million people of whom you 
are one. So, Europe's plea is addressed to you. The 
prayers of her hungry children are petitions to you. 
America's answer will come from the people. No man 
or woman in the United States can escape the responsi- 
bility. It is not a hypothetical case; it is a question in- 
volving the life of human beings, men, women and chil- 
dren, who are blood of our blood, part of the great world 
family — the human race. Shall we close down our shops, 
factories, mills and mines, bolt the doors and stop 
production at a time when millions of human beings are 
crying to us for help? Will we listen to the thin bony 
hands of children knocking at our doors and, safe in our 
comfortable homes, leave them to die? No call to arms 
ever had so much back of it, so much humanity in it as 
the call to work has to-day. 

The house of Europe has been on fire. It has been 
wrecked. It is scarred and charred — almost a ruin. The 
cupboards are empty, the people demoralized and sick. 
Hunger has a strangle hold. The people are in rags. 
They must rebuild and they have not the material for 
rebuilding. They turn to us ; their condition is their plea, 
our abundance our obligation. 

In our house things are well. We have been saved the 
devastation of war. Our acres are ample ; our yield has 
been plentiful; we have an abundance of raw material. 
Our man power has been comparatively slightly touched 
by the war. True, we gave nearly seventy thousand lives 
that the Prussians might not pass ; that autocracy might 
not shackle the world. It was our best blood. Europe 



4 THE NEW WORLD 

gave for four years and she gave of her youth until her 
man power was practically exhausted. 

We cannot sacrifice Europe without being injured. If 
Europe falls America will totter. The storm of unrest 
that rocks Europe will shake America. We must work 
and help. 

The heart of labor is warm. Its sympathy is born of 
suffering. The gospel of the brotherhood of man is the 
message labor has always taught. 

If I could picture the poverty of Europe, the wretched- 
ness of her hungry children and women and men, if I 
could only make people see what I have seen in Europe, 
our difficulties would indeed seem trivial by comparison 
with their sufferings. Men would will to work and find 
joy in the working. What greater compensation is there 
than working to feed the hungry, to clothe the ragged, 
to comfort the lowly? 

If the heart of capital is stone and will not feel the 
message which comes over the seas, labor can show 
that its heart is human and that it will suffer injustice, 
if need be, a little longer to save flesh and blood, brother 
and sister toilers on the other side of the ocean. It is a 
crime against God and man to stop production in this 
hour. Extravagance is a crime; waste is immoral. 

I did not stop with the gathering of records and figures, 
for while figures are important, ■ they do not often dis- 
close the fullness of truth. Official reports and statistics, 
granting they are accurate, are at best only photographic. 
The photograph records with mathematical exactness the 
exterior of things. It seldom gets to the heart of the 



PROBLEMS FACING A STRICKEN WORLD 5 

object. The photograph is the still picture — the outline 
of the motionless fact. Impressions are more like an oil 
painting. They show the human touch. They reach the 
heart of issues. Back of the daubs of paint on the canvas 
are the throbs of a heart. The film is only sensitized. 
Man's brain is sensitive. The photograph reproduces the 
image. The painting catches the substance. 

In reporting the things I saw and heard, I want to 
give both photographs and paintings — facts and figures as 
I learned them and the impressions I gathered from the 
speech and life of Europe. 

In the June of 1914 Europe had a place in the sunlight 
of peace. The fields were filled with peasants bending 
their backs to toil. Villagers were happy in the common 
routine of their simple lives. Factories, mills, mines and 
shops were filled with workers. Wheels hummed. Smoke 
streamed from chimneys. Industry was singing. In 
the cities traffic roared, trains rattled. It was the story 
of a busy working world. 

Problems there were, of course, the problems normal 
to the growth and progress of the world. There was 
some unrest, too, but children scampered to school; pa- 
tient women sang crooning songs to their babies. Men 
carrying dinner buckets whistled on their way to work. 
There were, as there always have been, shadows, the un- 
lighted side of the world street — the slums and the tene- 
ments, but men and women were planning and fighting 
the black ugliness, and every one had faith in the to- 
morrow. We were making headway; the world was 



6 THE NEW WORLD 

growing better. Its conscience was awakened. It was a 
normal, sane old world. It was good to be alive. 

Then came the day, the day that will never be forgot- 
ten, the day that changed the world; the day of four 
years at the end of which civilization was almost hunch- 
backed. 

EUROPE RISING FROM THE WAR 

August i, 1 91 4, was the day. On that day Germany 
declared war on Russia. The fire alarm rang round the 
world. Peasants in the fields straightened their backs, 
listened and looked into the sun, confused, wondering. 
Flags were unfurled. Bands called to arms ; faces were 
white, tense and serious. Men left their work and talked 
in groups on the street corners; women laid aside their 
tasks and whispered their fears ; fright lighted their eyes. 
Children stopped playing. Something had happened. 
Evil things were ahead. 

August 3 and 4 found France and Great Britain 
mobilizing their manhood. The torch was sweeping Eu- 
rope — the fire of death had started. 

For four long years, heart-sickening years, the world 
ran red. Men waded through mud and blood, fought, 
suffered, cursed and prayed, while back home in the 
manless houses women and children worked, cried, 
prayed and waited. The world was mad. Death poisoned 
every breath the people breathed. 

It is over now, it is finished. A weak, heartbroken 
Europe is again sitting in the light of peace, but threaten- 
ing clouds are in the sky. Europe is in black rags ; the 



PROBLEMS FACING A STRICKEN WORLD 7 

black her mourning, the rags her poverty. Her face is 
furrowed, trenches made by suffering. Her eyes are 
downcast and dead. Hope flutters weakly in her breast ; 
faith has almost faded from her soul; her home is a 
house of darkness. The fire on the hearth has turned 
to cold gray ashes. The kettle no longer sings; it sobs. 
Her mind is weary, her body wasted. Hunger has robbed 
her of strength. Her feet are blue from cold. Her lips 
wear privation's pallor. Ice in the winter's wind lashes 
her shivering half-naked body. She mumbles as she 
stares vacantly into space — she is tired, so tired. It 
seemed to me that a face so troubled and sad must have 
never known a smile. 

I listened to her mumblings ; she was counting. Over 
and over again she counted on her thin, tired, worn 
hands — she was counting her dead. 

Her eyes looked over the hundreds of thousands of 
square miles of the war zone scarred with trenches, 
pitted and pock-marked by shells. She sees where they 
fell, but no tears are in her eyes. Long ago the hurt 
reached the point where tears dry up. Row upon row, 
line upon line, mile upon mile of white painted wooden 
crosses mark their graves. For the greater part they 
were her youngest born, her best beloved who dug deep 
in the soil to sleep forever in dark dugouts. 

As they fell bleeding from steel and lead, choking 
with gas, writhing in the agony of liquid fire, they 
proved in the dying "word" they spoke that they were 
mere boys, as they had shown in their fighting that they 
were brave strong men. To the poppies they entrusted 



8 THE NEW WORLD 

their message, and the red poppies remember the dying 
"word" of Europe's martyred sons, they who went out 
into the silence with this last word on their lips, 
"Mother." 

Europe has finished counting. An ache shudders 
through her bent body. She sighs and sobs: "7,781,806 
of my sons were killed in battle." 

Her thoughts turn to the living, her arms open to 
receive them. She holds them to her heart. They have 
returned, but how? The woe of it! Some with sight- 
less eyes, doomed to grope through the world in a never- 
ending darkness, a night without stars or moon; sullen, 
black hopeless days, young men in the very morning 
of their day. 

Others sentenced to silence, deaf and dumb. Never 
again will she hear their voices nor will they hear hers. 

Still others in wheel chairs, dwarfed, legless. 

More hobbling on crutches, others limping on canes. 
Many with empty sleeves. Some with great scars where 
once was a handsome face. 

Despoiled Europe, she sees them all, the twisted, the 
mangled, the torn. She has counted them, the 20,477,- 
541, the wounded of the war. 

Doggedly she counts on. Seven million of her sons 
were marked, "Missing and Prisoners" in the official war 
books. Many of these have come back to her. She 
does not question them. She dare not. Their faces tell 
of the unspeakable horrors endured. She sees in their 
eyes a depth of pain that is unfathomable. She is a 
mother — she understands. 



PROBLEMS FACING A STRICKEN WORLD 9 

The war is over, but Europe is not over the war. Must 
she never stop counting? Is there no end to her losses? 
The graveyards are crowded, her thoughts turn to her 
civilian dead who, while they did not die in the war, died 
because of the war. Those who went out in battle left 
life in a burst of glory. Others there were who fell in 
their tracks; exhaustion, broken hearts, war privations 
were the causes. She has not forgotten how the home 
flank suffered. The stay-at-homes were not all slackers. 
Most of them were not stay-at-homes through choice. 
They fought hunger and cold, bent their backs beyond 
the straining point ; worst of all, they waited. 

It is estimated that nearly 15,000,000 civilians died 
from weakness, fatigue, strain, overwork, destroyed re- 
sistance. These for the most part were the underfed 
older men and women, the scared undernourished chil- 
dren. No need for wonder that Europe has the death 
look in her eyes. For four years with their months, 
weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds death has been 
her Nemesis. 

She is now totaling her losses. The figures are appal- 
ling. They stagger imagination. The world is bewil- 
dered by the number. It is stupendous, too horrible 
for understanding. 

Over 6,000,000 of the wounded are human wrecks. 
For the United States the number wounded, 192,483, is 
equal approximately to the total adult male population of 
the city of Baltimore. 

It is said that the dead of the war marching in column 



IO 



THE NEW WORLD 



Story 


of the Terrible War Cost 






Number 


Country 


Total 

mobilized 

forces 


Killed 


Wounded 


Prisoners 
or missing 




I 


2 


3 


4 


Allies 
Russia 


12,000,000 
7,500,000 
7,500,000 
5,500,000 

707,343 
750,ooo 

4,272,521 
267,000 
230,000 
100,000 
50,000 
800,000 


1,700,000 
1,385,300 
692,065 
460,000 
322,000 
200,000 

67,813 

20,000 

15,000 

4,000 

3,ooo 

300 


4,950,000 
2,675,000 

2,037,325 

947,000 

28,000 

120,000 

192,483 

60,000 

40,000 

15,000 

10,000 

907 


2,500,000 


France 


446,300 


British Empire 

Italy 


360,367 
x , 393 ,000 


Serbia 


100,000 


Roumania 

United States ....... 

Belgium 


80,000 

14,363 
10,000 


Greece 


45,000 


Portugal 


200 


Montenegro 


7,000 


Japan 


3 


Total 


39,676,864 


4,869,478 


n,075,7i5 


4,956,233 


Central Powers 
Germany 


11,000,000 

6,500,000 

1,600,000 

400,000 


1,611,104 
800,000 
300,000 
201,224 


3,683,143 

3,200,000 

570,000 

152,399 


772,522 

1,211,000 

130,000 

10,825 


Turkey 


Bulgaria 


Total 


19,500,000 


2,912,328 


7,605,542 


2,124,347 




Grand total 


59,176,864 


7,781,806 


18,681,257 


7,080,580 



four abreast would require ten days and nights to pass 
a given point. 

Who can measure this loss? 

War brought death. It did more, it stopped births. 
In the devastated regions of Belgium, France, Italy, 
Poland, parts of Russia and the Balkan countries, the 
birth rate fell. In England and Wales the birth rate in 
the last part of 191 5 was the lowest on record. Mallet 
calculated that the birth rate had fallen twelve per cent 
in England and Wales by 1916. In 1914 the birth rate 



PROBLEMS FACING A STRICKEN WORLD n 

in England and Wales was 879,096. In 1918 it had 
dropped to 662,773. To put it another way, but for the 
war the births in the United Kingdom from May, 191 5, 
to June, 1 91 8, should have been 3,500,000, instead there 
were only 2,950,000 births. 

In Italy the number of births in 1914 was 1,114,000. 
In 1 91 6 only 882,000. In France 594,000 births were 
recorded in 1914 and only 252,000 in 191 5. During the 
three years of the war it was officially estimated that 
births in Germany had decreased forty per cent. 

The Journal of Heredity quotes Savorganan as having 
estimated that it will take England at least ten years, 
Germany twelve years, Italy thirty-eight years and 
France sixty-eight years to recover their populations. In 
France, I was advised that over fifty per cent of the men 
between twenty and forty years were listed as dead or 
totally incapacitated. 

The human waste of the war is more than sad memo- 
ries. The loss of man power, is a problem. It has 
thrown out of balance the economic and domestic scheme 
of the world. Readjustment will take the greater part 
of the century, for there are more women than men. In 
the May, 1916, issue of the North American Review, 
William A. Rossiter estimated an excess of approxim- 
ately 17,600,000 females. This calculation was based 
upon the assumption at that date of an early termination 
of hostilities. Home life is bound to suffer. There will 
be fewer marriages, fewer children. Statistics tell only 
part of the story. 

Europe is not dying; she is exhausted, troubled, con- 



12 THE NEW WORLD 

fused ; she is trying to find herself. She is putting all of 
her remaining strength into the effort. The task before 
her is stupendous. She must rebuild her house, nurse 
her wounded, care for her cripples. She has counted 
her losses, inventoried her possessions. 

The past must bury its dead. To-morrow is for the 
living. To-day Europe is planning for to-morrow. To 
understand her work, to know her plans, to feel her 
problem, it is necessary to know her thoughts. | 

Unrest is threatening her. Fear is keeping her from 
work. It is causing her worry. Fear that peace will not 
be permanent — even greater, the fear that irritation and 
unrest may break out in violence. With all her soul she 
is pleading to the rich and powerful to become as little 
children again, her children. She is telling them that 
the fate of the family is at stake, that they must make 
concessions to their brothers. She is trying to make 
them understand they are brothers. Many of them have 
forgotten the relationship. When she urges them to stop 
wrangling and quarreling, she is pleading for their com- 
mon good, the family welfare. She is warning against 
justice too long denied, of unrest too long pent up. She 
is translating the mutterings of the discontented. She 
knows the complaint in their hearts. She sympathizes. 

This was Europe as I saw her in black rags arising 
from the war. 



CHAPTER II 
THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 

The Armistice ended the fighing. The signing of the 
peace treaty brought peace, but neither of these acts re- 
stored devastated Europe. The big job ahead is the 
work of reconstruction, and when I write the word "re- 
construction" I have not in mind the mere rebuilding 
of the war devastated areas of France, Belgium, Italy 
and Poland. Gigantic and important as this task is, 
necessary as it is, it' is only a small part of the work of 
reconstruction. Thousands of square miles make up the 
war zone, the ground marched over, the territory under 
shell fire. Millions of acres of land that once yielded 
food in response to the touch of the plow have for four 
years been tilled by explosives. 

Cities and villages are jungles of twisted, broken, torn 
iron, wood, brick and stone. I have walked through 
many of these villages and have stood stunned by the 
completeness of the destruction. The streets are uneven, 
lumpy masses of brick, stone, plaster, glass, aisles of 
wreckage, roofless houses with walls gutted and torn, 
disordered piles of brick and building material are jagged 
pinnacles, masses of debris. Had I not known of the 
war and come upon one of these unsightly shapeless 

13 



i 4 THE NEW WORLD 

ruins I should have concluded that nature had entered 
into a mad conspiracy, combining and concentrating all 
of the powers of a cyclone, a tornado and an earthquake, 
and spilled its fury on these mangled dead villages. 

Picture the refugees returning to these villages — com- 
ing back home, what the sight must have meant to them. 
I have seen some of them, their faces gray as the ruins, 
standing in the midst of their destroyed homes. I have 
watched them picking their way over piles of stone and 
brick through great openings in the broken walls, and 
I saw in their eyes homesickness, a hurt of heart beyond 
the power of words to describe. Old men and women 
and little bare-legged children, now and again a boy with 
a worn soiled uniform, some limping, others wearing an 
empty sleeve. One thought surged through my mind 
until it almost sickened me — War. 

The land of the war zone must be reclaimed. These 
acres are needed now more than they were before the 
war. The world's food supply is low. Miles of trenches 
must be filled up. Trees must be planted, the ground 
must be cleared of shells and barbed wire; villages and 
cities must be rebuilt. The mess must be removed; 
homes must be restored. It is a big job. 

One great misfortune is that although many months 
have come and gone since the signing of the Armistice 
no general comprehensive plan of reconstruction has been 
started. Here and there small sections of the devas- 
tated regions are being partly reconstructed. Temporary 
provision is being made for the homeless. This is all 
well and good, but intelligent, economical, efficient and 



THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 15 

speedy reconstruction demand a general plan and an 
organization equipped to speedily and completely put it 
over. 

The doing of this work requires vision and capacity 
for doing large things well. If the physical reconstruc- 
tion is left to Europe, the work will not be finished in 
fifty years. Here is a chance for America. We have 
experience in doing things on a big scale and Europe 
needs this experience and help. The physical recon- 
struction of Europe must be done; the sooner the better. 
And if America is going to help, why not now? It is 
estimated that it will cost $13,000,000,000 to reconstruct 
the North of France. 

The reconstruction of the devastated area is after all 
only a matter of plan, time and money, and notwithstand- 
ing the fact that Europe is bankrupt to-day, the money 
must and will come. The clearing up of the wreckage 
and the rebuilding is a minor problem compared with the 
other great and more important question of reconstruc- 
tion, the reconstruction of industry, the establishment of 
normal life. 

Money is a gross thing when compared with human 
life. To mention Europe's financial losses in the same 
breath with the dead and wounded seems sordid yet we 
live in an every-day world and in it money has its logical 
place. The economic condition of the world directly 
affects the people. It determines the kind of lives the 
people' live. It affects happiness. It has to do with se- 
curity. The war cost $197,000,000,000. In an economic 
sense every dollar spent was a waste, a loss. Europe's 



16 THE NEW WORLD 

debt and her poverty are making new and difficult prob- 
lems every day. 

How will Europe pay? How can she pay? Where 
can she get the money? These questions are troubling 
the wisest and most optimistic men. 

Europe has borrowed until her interest charge to-day 
almost equals her income. I heard Lloyd George say 
that England faced a yearly interest charge of over 
£300,000,000. Another official told me that this interest 
which England must pay this year is nearly £100,000,000 
larger than the cost of administration before the Boer 
war. Only the other day her interest was due on some 
loans from the United States and she defaulted. Our 
government added the interest to the principal and passed 
the day of payment on. In the meantime the pound is 
going down in value, as is the franc, the mark and the 
lira. When a country buys, and imports, the buyer na- 
tion must pay. Payment must be in gold or in things of 
value. Europe cannot pay in gold, and her disorganized 
life and her shortage of everything makes it impossible 
for her to pay in exports. Her imports are increasing 
daily and her credit is affected, her unpaid bills are piling 
up and as a consequence the value of her money is de- 
clining. Nations are not unlike individuals. When a 
man continues to make purchases and is unable to pay, 
his credit suffers. He has nothing of value with which 
to pay and he gives his note. He continues to buy and 
gives more notes. The result is that his paper is worth 
less and less until it has only the value of the paper. 
This is briefly and simply the story of the exchange 



THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 17 

problem. Europe's money is paper, whether it is marks, 
crowns, francs or kronen, and the nations of Europe, 
needing things with which to live, continue to buy where 
they can and are compelled to issue more paper money, 
and the more paper money issued the cheaper the paper 
money becomes. 

When I was on the continent the English pound, 
normally worth $4.85, could be bought for $4.14. There- 
after it went steadily down. Before the war Great Brit- 
ain had about $20,000,000,000 invested throughout the 
world. The war costs compelled her to dispose of 
seventy-five per cent of these investments, leaving her 
with approximately $5,000,000,000 in outside invest- 
ments. In 1919, Great Britain's income was two million 
pounds less per day than its expenditures. The govern- 
ment is under an enormous expense to support the 
"penny loaf/' which costs it about one million pounds a 
week. Then too she has the expense of maintaining 
large armies in Ireland, India and Egypt. At this time 
her internal interest amounts to over thirty-seven mil- 
lion pounds. This does not include the enormous sums 
annually due abroad. Before the war her interest charge 
was about £24,500,000. Great Britain faces the problem 
of paying interest equal to £30 per man against an aver- 
age earning capacity of £125 per man. When the Brit- 
ish ministers balance the budget they are juggling fig- 
ures — they are causing figures to lie. 

Great Britain continues to increase the value of her 
imports. In 191 3 her imports amounted to about $3,- 
000,000,000, while in 191 8 they had increased to $9,000,- 



,i8 THE NEW WORLD 

000,000. This computation in dollars is based on a rate 
of exchange of $5 to the pound. If this increase in im- 
ports promised an increase in production it would indi- 
cate that Great Britain was recovering and would soon 
be able to increase her exports, thus paying her debts 
and helping to restore her credit and increase the value 
of the pound. Unfortunately this is not the fact, as 
shown by the Board of Trade figures for the first eleven 
months of 1919. These figures show that while the 
increase in value of imports has multiplied, yet the actual 
weight of the imports has decreased; that is, while in 
1 91 3 for a similar period the imports were roughly 
50,000,000 tons, in 1919 they were only about 35,000,000 
tons, a decrease in quantity of 15,000,000 tons, this 
decrease largely in wood, timber and mineral ores, which 
are essential to rehabilitate the decay and destruction 
consequent to war and enable the manufacture of such 
articles as could be exported to a large extent. 

France is in even a worse plight. The banks are loaded 
with government paper. She has made no provision 
by taxation to pay her enormous war debt. I was told 
that any effort to impose a tax in France would bring 
on a revolution. It is said that her debt has reached the 
startling figure of $640 for every man, woman and child 
in the nation. When I left Cherbourg to sail for America 
the regulation had been put into effect prohibiting any 
one leaving France from taking money with him, either 
metal or paper money, in excess of 1,000 francs, and 
on that date I could have bought almost nine francs for 
an American dollar. 



THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 19 

France looks to the receipt of the indemnities from 
Germany to save her from bankruptcy and in this she 
faces disappointment. Few people in Europe, particu- 
larly economists, have ever entertained the hope that 
Germany could or would pay the huge indemnities fixed 
by the Peace Conference. Germany's economic condi- 
tion precludes any such possibility. The attitude of mind 
of the German people is opposed to any serious effort to 
comply with the impossible conditions imposed by the 
Peace Conference. It will do no good to call a man a 
German sympathizer, because he tells the truth about this 
matter. Facts are facts and must be faced. It is esti- 
mated that Germany is not worth over $50,000,000,000 
and her national indebtedness is about $55,000,000,000. 
Germany's future is blighted by a conflict raging 
between the Prussian militarists who have not given 
up hope of reestablishing the old order, and her left 
wing "Reds," who have caught the fever of Bolshevism 
and are bent upon ruining Germany in the name of the 
dictatorship of the proletariat. 

Italy's national debt is staggering. She faces an in- 
creased cost in everything she needs and her credit is 
practically gone. The cost of coal, and it is an import- 
ant factor in production, illustrates Italy's problem. 
Italy formerly imported 11,000,000 tons of coal, costing 
from twenty to twenty-five lira a ton (four to five dol- 
lars). With her present depreciated currency each ton 
costs now from six hundred to seven hundred lira. Her 
depreciated currency affects the cost of every commodity 



20 THE NEW WORLD 

she needs and uses, without which Italy is helpless ancf 
her industries are paralyzed. 

In Czechoslovakia I found a new nation without 
any gold reserve. The government closed the borders 
for ten days and commanded the people to bring their 
paper money to the banks where stamps were put on the 
bills. When they brought their money they were given 
fifty per cent of it back, stamped, and receipts for the 
balance. In this way the government cut down the 
volume of its paper money fifty per cent. Even after this 
effort to preserve some value in the kronen, I bought 
kronens in Prague for less than two cents apiece. The 
industries of Czecho-Slovakia were working from twenty 
to twenty-five per cent of their capacity. Men were idle 
as a result and the government sought to prevent general 
starvation and revolution, I mean the revolution of idle, 
hungry, hopeless men, by issuing to them money with 
which to live. The effect of this is demoralizing. Idle 
men living from a government gift of money which they 
had not earned are demoralized. Such a plan quickly 
takes from men the desire to work. No criticism can be 
attached to the government, because it was the only thing 
it could do. Czecho-Slovakia was without credit. It 
had sought raw materials on time in almost every quar- 
ter, and with little success. The gold reserve of the gov- 
ernment was beet sugar, and this was mortgaged to a 
syndicate of Holland-French banks. 

In Poland every kind and species of paper money is in 
circulation. The new Poland is made up of land which 
before the war formed parts of the Russian, Prussian 



THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 21 

and Austro-Hungarian empires. The frontiers of Po- 
land are open. The Peace Table has not fixed them. 
During the war Russia, Prussia and Austria looted Po- 
land. All the precious metals were stolen, including sil- 
ver and gold plate. Poland is practically without any 
gold reserve. Poland was stripped of everything of value 
and use. Poland's vain struggle to get credit, to keep her 
people from dying by the millions from hunger and cold, 
is pitiful. 

Austria is penniless, poverty-stricken. Vienna is a 
city of ghosts, listless, pepless human beings. They drag 
their feet after them. Their heads are bent on their 
shoulders. The kronen was worth a cent when I was 
there. But it mattered little, for there is practically 
nothing to buy. Austria in her extremity, her people 
starving, petitioned the Peace Table for the privilege of 
selling her art treasures. Her plea was to exchange 
them for bread and coal and her necessity uttered the 
plea. The Peace Table refused permission, holding that 
these things of value might be the only collateral out of 
which the Allies could collect the indemnity. 

Europe's debt is her crown of thorns, her dead is her 
cross ; unrest is her Calvary. America is her hope— her 
resurrection. 

PRODUCTION THE FIRST NEED 

The world lives by two kinds of work, the work on 
the soil and the labor spent in making things. In this 
way we' get the things we eat, wear and use. We have 
eaten up our surplus. The world's reserve is gone. We 



22 THE NEW WORLD 

are literally living from hand to mouth. To "overcome 
the food shortage we must put every inch of available 
ground into production. Only by doing this can we live 
and gradually get back the surplus which stood as a pro- 
tection against crop failures. 

Production is not automatic, it is the work of man. 
To grow things men must plow and gather. The will to 
work is our greatest need. The land is available. God 
furnishes the sunshine and the rain. To get plows, trac- 
tors and farm tools we must go to the industrial arm of 
life. Here again is the call for men. We are short of 
man power. Men were killed and crippled in the war. 
The men who survived the war must help do the work 
that would have been done by those who did not come 
back. In their present frame of mind they do not will 
to work, at least under the old conditions obtaining be- 
fore the war. It is necessary to furnish them with an 
inducement to work. There was little inducement for 
men to work before the war. The discontented are not 
kicking at work. Their objection goes to the unfairness 
shown in distributing the result. It isn't any secret. 
They are shouting it from the housetops of Europe, they 
demand a larger share of the things they produce, or 
they refuse to work. There is a good deal of human 
nature in it, too. It is only human nature to think of 
self. There isn't anything unnatural in the working- 
man looking for reward. Willingness to work is largely 
based on the thought of working for oneself. 

Five things are necessary to start and keep production 
going. To get the clothes, coal and comforts of life, to 



THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 23 

give the farmer the tools he needs for agricultural pro- 
duction, so that we may eat; to provide the transporta- 
tion necessary to collection and distribution, to bring the 
city to the country and the country to the market we 
must do five essential things. 

First, we must have plants, and I use the word in the 
most general sense. These plants must be equipped with 
machinery and tools, they must be ready for work. 

Second, a plant is useless and stands idle unless we 
provide raw material, the thing furnished by nature that 
man and machine work into the finished product. 

Third, we must have coal. Coal runs the machine and 
keeps warm the home of the man who runs the machine. 
The helplessness of the world without coal is brought 
home to me while I am writing these articles. The min- 
ers have left the pit. The government, through the 
courts, has tried to force them back. The effort is a 
failure. The streets are dark at night. The houses are 
cold. Business is crying out against necessary restric- 
tions imposed because of the coal shortage. I realize 
as I never have before how dependent we are on the 
men who pick and dig the coal. All of the intelligence 
and culture, the courts, the gold, are but symbols of 
power. When the coal miners folded their hands and 
set their teeth things stopped. 

Fourth, transportation is necessary to the gathering, 
collecting and delivering of raw material and the distri- 
bution of the finished product. 

Fifth, and last, but first in importance, is man power. 
The purpose of production is man. He is master at 



24 THE NEW WORLD 

every stage, in every department. Without him produc- 
tion is impossible. Employers who proceed on the theory 
that men could not live without their business, its pay 
roll, forget the first and greater truth that there would 
be no business without the workers. Man cuts, digs, 
gathers and hauls the raw material. He hews the wood, 
builds the plant. He mines the ore, he makes the tools, 
the machinery. He oils it, sets it in motion. He runs it. 
He makes the furnace and the boiler. He digs and shov- 
els the coal which makes the power. He defies the heat 
of the furnace. He builds the locomotive and pulls its 
throttle. He makes the freight car and stands in the 
sleet in the dangerous railroad yard with the signal of 
safety. 

Transportation in Europe is particularly paralyzed. 
During the war railroad tracks and roadbeds had fallen 
to pieces. It could not be helped, but the fact that it was 
unavoidable doesn't alter the situation. Roadbed and 
rails have fallen to pieces. There is a terrible shortage 
of cars. Everywhere on the Continent this is felt. They 
have less than a third of the rolling stock necessary to 
meet normal requirements. The demand for transporta- 
tion facilities will necessarily increase during the period 
of reconstruction. I have seen locomotives sneezing, 
coughing, expiring every few miles. Old, broken-down 
engines, the kind one expects to find in a museum. I was 
on a de luxe train, a diplomatic express. I commented 
upon the condition of the locomotive, which came to a 
full stop every few miles. The chief of the train looked 



THE PROBLEM OF EUROPE'S POVERTY 25 

at me, smiled and said: "If you think this one is bad 
you ought to see some of the others." 

The war disarranged plants and factories. The de- 
mand was for munitions. Equipment efficient for peace 
production gave way to plant construction necessary to 
manufacture the weapons of war. Plants were com- 
mandeered. Machinery was torn out, new machinery 
put in. A complete reconstruction and reorganization 
was effected. It is necessary to change these plants back 
and fit them for the production needed. It is expensive, 
it takes time, it retards production. 

It is strange that, while every one can see and under- 
stand the difficulties and delays incident to reorganizing 
and rearranging machinery and plants, many people can- 
not see or understand the problem of rearranging men's 
lives, who for four years have been living abnormally. 
The effect of the war upon plants and equipment is con- 
ceded by the very man who refused to see any effect of 
the war on the men who were in it. 

During the war women answered the roll-call. They 
left their homes and went to work. There is hardly any 
class of work that I can think of that I have not seen 
women doing in Europe. I have seen them loading 
boats, shoveling coal, washing windows, driving wagons, 
cleaning streets, conductors on trams. Many of the 
women who went into the industries were young women. 
Now that the war is over and the men have come back 
there is a demand on the part of the men that the women 
return to their homes. This is impossible in many cases, 
for these women have grown dependent upon their jobs 



26 THE NEW WORLD 

for their living. Some employers of labor have taken 
advantage of the situation. They pay a woman less 
money than they pay a man for the same work. This 
makes both dissatisfied. The woman has the sympathy 
of the working man. He doesn't want her to compete 
with him to the extent that his wages will be lowered, 
neither does he want the boss to discriminate against her. 

Women have come into the world of work to stay. 
If there is any meaning in the phrase "class conscious," 
they are living examples of it. They are more outspoken 
about their demands than men. They sense a wrong long 
before a man can see it. They have brought their intui- 
tion into the labor world. They are more radical than 
men, and they stimulate men to action. They have 
brought to the labor problem a new and interesting angle. 
1 The key to the future is in the hands of these men 
and women. Production is the door that must be opened. 
Men and women must work, or winter and want will 
make a No Man's Land of Europe before the autumn 
of 1920. 

Children crying for bread, shivering in the cold, are 
praying that men will work when they pray to God for 
food and warmth. Their help cries are smothered by a 
great blanket — unrest. Will men hear them ? 



CHAPTER III 
THE WILL TO WORK 

The most obvious thing in Europe is the changed atti- 
tude of the people. And yet there are many, particu- 
larly in the conservative employing group, who refuse to 
see; there are none so blind as these. While they close 
their eyes and minds, the change goes on. It is not just 
rhetoric to write that new forces are at work. Of course 
one cannot see the forces any more than he can see the 
grass growing. But one can see the result; it is possible 
to measure and analyze the effects. 

Everywhere I have heard people talking about a "New 
Order." Men separated by hundreds of miles were 
thinking and talking the same ideas. It startled me to 
discover that the speech in the Slav countries was ad- 
dressed to the same theme, and largely from the same 
point of view I had heard in England and France. I 
did not meet any one who was able to give me a clear, 
complete meaning of the phrase "New Order," but I 
found it on the lips of almost every one. It has a mean- 
ing and time will furnish a plan. The people are look- 
ing ahead waiting for something to happen, expecting 
better hVes. They have faith that this New Order will 
come, and that in it they will find the dreamed-of free- 

27 



28 THE NEW WORLD 

dom. The people seem confident that some vital com- 
pensation must and will come out of the siege of suffer- 
ing through which the world has passed. If they were 
not so earnest and yet so sane, so intent and still so 
calm about it, I should have interpreted their speech as 
fanaticism. 

A meaningless minority of reactionaries scorn all talk 
of a New Order. They are the backward-looking men 
of big business, the stand-patters in politics. They are 
out of touch with the times, out of sympathy with the 
people. They think the world is the little circle 'in which 
they live. They are the barnacles on big business. They 
smugly set down all talk of "change" as Bolshevism. 
Fortunately the real leaders of business are breaking 
away from this past-tense point of view. The progres- 
sive, humane and open-minded business men see and 
know that unrest is a pressing problem and that it must 
be solved, and they are giving heed to the complaints of 
the workers ; they are giving thought to the problem. A 
former narrow-mindedness which shut out the point of 
view of the worker and ignored it, is passing. Some of 
the advocates of the truth, that there is justice back of 
the complaint of the workers, are large employers of 
labor. Instead of arguing coercion these men are talking 
concession. They recognize the change that has come 
over the people and they want to meet it, not with force 
but humanely and justly and with understanding. A 
New Order will come. The dawn of the new day has 
broken. No one can halt time and keep this day from 
being realized. The one question bothering the minds of 



THE WILL TO WORK 29 

men awake to the change is, will it come through revolu- 
tion or through evolution ? The greatest friend of revo- 
lution is the stubborn employer who refuses to admit that 
a new day has come to the world, but insists things must 
remain as they have been and relies upon the use of 
force to put down unrest. He is unconscious of the fact 
that he is stimulating and aggravating unrest. He sees 
the "Red" in Bolshevism, but he does not see the "yel- 
low" in himself. He knows that work alone will save us, 
that without it there can be no production; but he does 
not realize that unrest is killing the will to work. 

We live by work ; prosperity and production are syno- 
nyms. World poverty is nothing more nor less than 
under production — not having enough of the things 
needed for the world's life. Stripping economics of all 
its high-sounding jargon, the naked truth is that the 
world has only the things it works to produce. 

It may not be amiss to state a few facts known by 
everybody which tell in terms of meaning a simple fund- 
amental truth in economics. We live on the earth. It is 
land and water; in the ground are minerals. The land 
grows crops, and we need the minerals that are in the 
ground, but the soil will not grow crops nor will the 
ground yield minerals without man's labor. We must 
live and we must have food and all the fertile soil in the 
world means nothing until it is cultivated and crops 
planted and harvested by the work of man. We must 
have clothing, houses in which to live, transportation and 
the thousand and one other things which make up the 
needs of the world, and we cannot get any of these ex- 



30 THE NEW WORLD 

cept through work. When little work is done we have a 
shortage of everything. There is not enough food to go 
around, and some must go hungry, others must starve. 
There are not enough clothes, enough coal, and many 
people are cold, others freeze, some are ragged, others 
are naked. Everything by which we live is the result 
of work. Stop work and you stop the supply, and pov- 
erty and misery follow. 

To understand Europe's condition to-day one must 
stop and realize that the war interrupted production. 
Nearly 60,000,000 men answered the call to arms and for 
four years these men were withdrawn from factories, 
farms, mines and mills. Their labor power was lost to 
the world. If 60,000,000 men went on a strike for four 
years the world would understand the enormous loss of 
such a withdrawal of labor from industry and agricul- 
ture. Conceive if you can of the pile of manufactured 
goods and of food that would have been produced by 
their toil. But the mobilizing of the armies of the world 
has had a more serious effect upon production than such 
a strike would have had. In a strike men merely stop 
producing and the world is compelled to adopt every 
economy. Most important is the fact the mobilized men 
were not idle, they were engaged in destruction. From 
an economic point of view the war was a strike, plus. 

The present growing illness of the world is not incur- 
able. There is a remedy and it can be written in a sin- 
gle word. The prescription is "work." Every effort 
should be made to inspire every man with the will to 
work. Force and intolerance are not inspirational. Men 



THE WILL TO WORK 31 

cannot be made to work. No employer should contribute 
to unrest and provoke idleness by refusing to negotiate 
with his men, and into the negotiations he should bring 
a friendly spirit, a sense of fairness, an open-mindedness, 
a willingness to compromise. Justice should be the ob- 
jective, and to reach it, it is necessary for the employer 
and worker alike to dispassionately examine their differ- 
ences. The employer who meets labor with the thought 
in his mind that he is better equipped to fight than labor 
is because he has a surplus, which labor has not, and 
can eat and be warm while the workers who have been 
living from hand to mouth will starve, is not only short- 
sighted, he is, without knowing it, using the tactics and 
methods of the Bolsheviki. He had better get the idea 
out of his head that men can be starved into submission. 
There was a day when this was true, but that day has 
passed never to return. The man, who depends upon his 
ability to turn a key in the factory door or shut down 
the mine and go off on a vacation, imposing his will on 
his workmen, will recall that the late autocrat of Pots- 
dam, now of Holland, was prevented from doing this 
very thing to the world, and by the very men then in 
khaki, now in overalls, who are his workmen. 

One thing that some people do not seem to realize is 
that the men who fought the world's fight for freedom 
are the same men who are now complaining that they are 
not getting a square deal. These men and their complaint 
are at the bottom of the present world unrest. Who were 
the overwhelming majority of the volunteers and con- 
scripted men whose numbers ran into millions, who went 



32 THE NEW WORLD 

to the front for civilization ? They are the farm hands, 
the clerks, the teamsters, the millworkers, the men in the 
factories and shops, the coal miners, the men who oper- 
ate the trains and swing the signal lanterns in the switch 
yards. These are the center of the labor problem. 

Mr. Employer, you are dealing with ex-soldiers. Do 
not forget it. They fought for you, for all of us. You 
would not have your business to-day if it had not been 
for them, and when you think of the bond you bought, 
remember the blood they gave. 

ON THE TRAIL OF WORLD UNREST 

One thought is arousing Europe from the stupor of 
her misery. She opens her eyes in wide amazement when 
noting the change in her children. It is puzzling her, 
although she knows what they have gone through, how 
patiently and uncomplainingly they suffered. When she 
remembers the peace of the years before the war, the 
sane lives they lived, and then recalls the four years in 
which they wallowed in wet, foul sewers called trenches, 
slept in tombs on the edge of a strip of hell called No 
Man's Land, breathed the smell of burning flesh, saw 
their pals "go west," buried their dead, grinned at pain, 
laughed at death; it is not strange that they have 
changed. Nerves of steel could not stand what they went 
through. 

The men have put on mufti again. It is strange to 
them. The quiet streets are dull. The demobilized sol- 
dier feels the let-down. The tenseness over, depression 
sets in. During the war he did not have time to think 



THE WILL TO WORK 33 

•of mucli except the job ahead of him. Every minute, 
every move was life or death. Now for the first time 
he realizes what he has gone through, wonders why he is 
alive. Two thoughts possess him; one, the memory of 
every minute of the days and nights of the war — the 
other, what is ahead, what is he going to do with his life ! 
He is at the crossroads. The word "job" doesn't mean 
much to him. It is not that he is lazy, but he has to 
pinch himself to realize that it is over and that he is back 
from the war. 

Between the whizz of machine bullets and the shriek of 
shrapnel he spent his time thinking, and his thoughts 
were not all about the war. He never got used to the 
war, but he learned to forget it. He has brought more 
than souvenirs and memories from his experience. He 
has brought home thoughts, ideas and ambitions from 
the trenches. Many a night, looking over No Man's 
Land, listening to the "banshee" of the war, he thought 
and resolved that if he ever came back he wanted, and 
would have, a better chance in this queer thing called 
Life. He feels that he has paid for a place. And he has 
paid. He has earned the right to a decent place in the 
world, for which he fought. He helped save the world 
and he looks to that world to save him from a meaning- 
less machine existence. If it fails him he has made up 
his mind to use force. He is willing to work, wants to 
work, but he insists on being part of his work, rather 
than his work being all of him. He sees, feels and meas- 
ures thmgs from an intensely human angle. He feels 
Jiis humanness. The war emphasized the value and 



34 THE NEW WORLD 

meaning of the human being. It was life or death. He 
is alive. He wants a human interest in his work. 

Demobilized soldiers in different parts of Europe, in 
different languages, are saying: 

If the world isn't going to give us a better chance than it 
gave us before the war, then the world wasn't worth fighting 
for. When we fought, they told us it was to make the 
world safe for democracy and to make life worth while. 
We thought this meant us and ours. We have learned that 
life isn't only a question of a job and enough to eat, we want 
to be treated like human beings. A man wants to feel that 
his work means more to him than just wages. He spends 
most of his time at work, the rest of it is spent with his family 
and in sleeping so he will be able to work the next day. 
Why shouldn't he have an interest in the business, and why 
shouldn't the business have an interest in him? We don't 
want to run the business, all we ask is a say in it, a friendly 
say in it. Some people think that to be fed is to be free — 
it isn't. Being free means being treated like a human being. 

I have found many decent honest men and women 
who have lost interest in work. They say, "We don't get 
a fair share of what we make. We fight among our- 
selves for jobs because we have to or starve, and they 
pay us as little as they can." I am not reasoning or 
arguing this question. I am merely stating a fact which 
indicates the state of mind of millions of men and women 
in Europe who during the past four years did their bit 
for civilization. 

Calling these people Bolsheviki doesn't silence them 
nor solve the problem. Such tactics irritate and deepen 
the unrest. Their grievance must be given a fair, patient 



THE WILL TO WORK 35 

hearing. Their attitude of kind must be reckoned with 
if we hope to get back to normal living. I have heard 
it said that these people must be made to understand that 
it is work or starve. No law or government in the world 
is powerful enough to compel people to work. To think 
of using force is foolish, suicidal. 

We have had enough force during the last four years 
and the farther we get away from the idea of beating 
one another into submission the better off we shall be. 
The present unrest is positively dangerous. It isn't 
like any other unrest. There is no precedent. It is the 
restlessness of human beings who have been face to face 
with death. We need calmness and common sense. Of 
one thing I am sure, and that is, if an effort is made to 
use blind, brute force on the working people of the 
world, the present unrest will be set in motion, a whirl- 
wind will break upon the world. 

The open road to happiness is cooperation. If we 
stop for a moment and realize what we have been 
through, and the changes that through it have come upon 
us, we will find getting together easy. Unrest blocks the 
road. It fetters the will to work. We must face the 
truth, and the sooner we do so the better. The war has 
bankrupted Europe. One thing, and one thing only, will 
bring us back to sane, normal living. It is work. Sym- 
pathy and understanding will do more to secure peace 
and stimulate work, than defiance, challenge and threats. 

A normal world is one in which men live and work, 
where all men have a chance to be happy, an interest in 
work, a joy in working — living to work, rather than 



36 THE NEW WORLD 

working to live. Men must have food, clean wholesome 
food, and enough of it to do their work without exhaus- 
tion. Men must have clothes. Not only to protect their 
bodies from the weather, but clothes that satisfy the 
normal instinct for cleanliness and neatness. Decent 
clothes sustain self-respect. 

There must be a time between the end of the day and 
the beginning of sleep in which men can know and enjoy 
their families. The man who is so used up by his day's 
work that he falls asleep at his supper table isn't playing 
fair with his wife and children, and his employer isn't 
playing fair with him. All men are boys, even after they 
have gray hair. This quality is probably the finest and 
best in them. They need a playtime, a recreation time. 
When they do not get it, they lose something and the 
world loses more. It is not enough that bodies are fed, 
minds must also be fed. Light is the right of every 
human being with eyes. Education is light. The human 
race must have light. Children are entitled to a school 
time, a jump-the-rope time, a top time, a play time. A 
child who enters manhood or womanhood without ever 
having known a childhood goes through life with some- 
thing missing, something lost. The creed of the changed 
world is that while the world doesn't owe any one a liv- 
ing, it is obligated to give every human being a chance to 
make a decent living. The new commandment is that 
this chance must be given. These were some of the 
thoughts I found planted in the unrest in Europe. They 
are strongly, deeply rooted in the consciousness of the 
people and they are growing. Men and women are gar- 



THE WILL TO WORK 37 

dening, cultivating, protecting these ideas. Any effort to 
uproot or destroy these flowering thoughts will be re- 
sented and fought by the gardeners. They are not weed 
thoughts — they are the blooms of hope and they belong 
to the poor. They will fight and die before they will 
see these hope growths trampled under foot. This is the 
only garden they have. The blood of the dead fertilized 
it. The living care for it. 



CHAPTER IV 

UNREST BEFORE THE WAk WAS AN ACORN, 
TO-DAY IT IS AN OAK 

A specter haunts Europe. It is the ghost of unrest. 
When I started out to interview unrest in Europe I did 
not give ear to the idle theorist who always knows all 
about everything, but never from direct experience, 
nor did I go to the agitator who preaches unrest in "Red" 
words. I did not seek out the type of fanatical labor 
leader, who, eager for trouble, is trying to mobilize unrest 
and marshal it under the banner of Revolution. I passed 
over the place-hunting, time-serving politician. I was not 
interested in platitudes and promises. 

I sought knowledge of unrest from those who knew it 
by actual contact. I went to the man in the street, the 
average man. I talked with the blackened coal miner at 
the mouth of the shaft. He had just come from his day 
of darkness in the ground. I visited the man who works 
in the mills. I listened to the speech of the teamster. I 
went to factories and talked with men between the two 
whistles which mark the time of the noon meal. They 
munched at black bread, ate cheese or sausage, gulped 
tea, coffee or cheap, diluted red wine. I spent time with 
the idle, the idle by choice as well as those who through 

38 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 39 

no fault of their own were without work. Only yester- 
day, most of these men were in khaki ; now, back on the 
job in overalls, they were thinking. Their speech was 
troubled. Discontent looked out from their eyes. I could 
feel the undercurrent of unrest. They talked it, never 
as unrest, always protest. 

Unrest is epidemic; it is militant. Unrest is real, it 
has cause. To get close to the cause of this disease 
which threatens revolution, one must understand what 
is going on in the' minds of the men upon whom the 
world's work is depending. Heed must be given to the 
things irritating them, and a remedy found for the irrita- 
tion, otherwise serious trouble will follow. While "war 
is hell" it has at least the restraint of discipline. A revo- 
lution growing out of unrest would mean mob madness, 
terrorism — fanatical, brutal, cruel and merciless. Once 
started it would ignite the world, and the fire would run 
its course until there was nothing left to burn. Who 
dares picture the state in which it would leave the world ? 
In this day, when the nerves of mankind are on edge, 
when cold and hunger incite to destruction, one shud- 
ders to think of the fate of civilization if unrest is not 
checked before it explodes its passion and wrath. 

Unrest existed before the war. Then an acorn, it is 
now an oak. Before the war men were complaining, and 
justly, about their lot, but four years in the trenches 
caused them to stop complaining and act. Soldiering 
taught them much. They learned of the greatness of 
force ; to-day, they demand, and back of their demand is 
the full grown grievance and the war lesson. 



40 THE NEW WORLD 

Plain average men have always been intensely human. 
Loving their wives and children, they lived for their 
homes, and felt keenly their responsibility for the happi- 
ness of the loved ones. They have but one thing to 
give. Before the war they gave it unsparingly; it was 
their labor. Their one source of income was the pay 
envelope. With their wages they had to buy shoes, 
clothes, food, and provide shelter for the lives they 
brought into the world, and for the women they had 
chosen to be the mothers of those children. 

"Home, Sweet Home," is the world's anthem. It is 
the heart song of the average man. From his home he 
goes to work, and from work he goes home, but shanties 
and tenements are not homes. These men have always 
protested against the ugly shacks in which they were 
compelled to house their families. They bit their lips 
in jobless days when their children went to bed hungry. 
Resentment grew in their hearts when they saw how 
poorly dressed their wives and little ones were, and 
they muttered curses when their children were forced to 
work. They had hoped their children would have a better 
education than they had had, and a better chance in life. 

As these men grew older their families grew in size 
and wants, while their ability to earn decreased. The 
tragedy registered in their pay envelopes. They were 
being ground between growing needs and diminishing 
wages. The grinding hurt their bodies and furrowed 
their brains. 

They lived in dread of poverty. It had been their 
nurse, they feared it would be their pallbearer. Poverty 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 41 

had taken its revenge upon them. They were resolving it 
should not put its lash upon their children. They knew 
poverty intimately. It wasn't a word, a name; it was a 
living, hateful, cruel companion. It was the evil that 
recruited the Marys of Scarlet Hall, the Magdalenes of 
the slums, and always the army was mobilized from the 
homes of the poor. Girls who had been robbed of their 
youth, who had never owned a flower, poorly fed and 
miserably clad, dragged out of bed by alarm clocks, 
sounding the call to toil, when they should have been 
answering the school bell, children physically unfit for the 
breadwinner's struggle, children without the moral en- 
durance necessary for the life fight, were driven into 
"No Woman's Land," the rotten scum under the world. 

Before the war men were brooding on these things. 
Papers, books, magazines, mirroring life, pictured these 
horrors. Men returning from a hard day's work talked 
these things over with their wives after the children had 
gone to bed, and many a man left his supper table to 
peek through the half-closed door into a room where his 
"kiddies" were sleeping, tiptoeing back, only to look into 
the eyes of a mother, and see reflected there the fears 
he felt. 

The invention of the typesetting machine, the manu- 
facture of cheap paper, the growth of public school sys- 
tems, and public libraries, brought an ever increasing 
light to the minds of workmen. They saw more clearly 
their needs and more completely realized their rights. 
They saw that education is the light in the road. They 
sought to make haste, to make up for lost time. Educa- 



42 THE NEW WORLD 

tion taught them to want things for themselves and their 
families of which their fathers and mothers had never 
thought. The homes which satisfied their parents de- 
pressed and irritated them. The bathtub and tooth brush 
are acquired habits. The desire to straighten the back 
that has been bent in toil too long, is put there by 
education. 

One thing stood in the way — obstructing the path to 
decent living — Poverty. They saw this impassable ob- 
stacle was the result of poor wages. They saw more. 
They saw that poor wages built the poorhouses and 
filled them, organized the bread lines, introduced the 
soup house. Out of their thoughts, and from their ex- 
perience they carved a truth. As long as some people 
have more than they can possibly use, while others 
through no fault of their own have less than they abso- 
lutely need, something is wrong. 

When the call to arms came these thoughts were living 
in the mass mind of the world. 

A PRIMARY CAUSE OF UNREST 

Not many years ago something happened which mate- 
rially changed the relations between employer and em- 
ployee, and this happening has had a marked effect upon 
industrial discontent. Something was lost. The human 
element, the personal touch, between the boss and the 
workers stopped. With its passing unrest grew with 
great vigor. A new kind of unrest which resolved itself 
into a lasting, determined, resolute discontent. It came 
with the passing of the small business. 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 43 

In the day of the small plant, business was owned and 
run by a man, or a number of men in partnership. These 
men lived in the community in which their men lived. 
They worked with their men. In the front of the plant 
was the office of the "boss/' He was on the job. He 
wasn't a hired boss, either — he was the real boss — the 
owner. The sign under which the business was run bore 
his name. It identified him with the business. The boss 
had his home in the city in which the plant was located. 
His children went to the school, frequently the school to 
which the children of his workmen went. If he was a 
church-going man — and generally he was — he and his 
family went on Sunday to the same church that his men 
and their families attended. The men who worked for 
him knew him, at least to the extent of recognizing him 
when they saw him. He knew many of them, person- 
ally and by name. Few people realized then how much 
this meant to the maintenance of harmonious relations in 
the industrial world. When working men had a griev- 
ance, or thought they had, they took it directly to the 
boss. He discussed it with them. He was reasonable 
and fair. If the complaint was well founded it was 
given consideration ; a remedy was found. The working 
man was satisfied. He had had his way. He was 
treated as a human being. He felt he was part of the 
business, so did the boss. 

In the day of small business, the owner of a factory 
or plant who paid his men an unliving wage was a 
marked man in the community. Public opinion chastised 
him for his selfishness and inhumanity. The people 



44 THE NEW WORLD 

said he was a sweater, a slave driver, and held him in 
contempt. They contrasted his good clothes, the style of 
his family and his fine mansion, with the rags his working 
men wore, the hovels in which they lived. He was 
pointed out, hated, despised. The thought of the commu- 
nity was that it would be better for him and his to give 
up some of their excess luxury and afford the men living 
wages. Disgrace fell not only upon his head, but fol- 
lowed his wife and children. When they went to church 
they were regarded as hypocrites ; people knew that every 
day in the week he was insulting the Christ he pretended 
to worship on the Sabbath. Few men are so thick- 
skinned as not to feel the lash of public opinion. It 
isn't easy to bear the hate of one's neighbors, and it is 
natural for men to want the good opinion of their fel- 
lows. In the day of small business, public opinion held a 
lash over the inhuman and greedy, and kept hirers of 
men human. But the small employer was doomed. 

The partnership passed off the stage and with it the 
personal touch between employer and employees. The 
corporation, a soulless body, was born of the law. It 
absorbed small plants and small businesses. It collected 
under a single roof thousands of men. The corporation, 
the combination, the trust had come. This new order 
of doing business on a large scale was efficient — econ- 
omical. It eliminated waste and duplication. It was a 
great, smooth-running machine. It represented progress 
in doing the world's work. 

The corporation name did not disclose the owners of 
Big Business. It was an impersonal, inhuman thing. 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 45 

Frequently the stockholders did not live in the cities 
where the plants were located. The real owners were 
unknown to employees and public. Many of the large 
shareholders had never seen the plant. The men who 
worked in the plants had never seen the men for whom 
they worked. The man actually running the business 
was only an employee. He was paid a large salary and 
it was made plain to him when he was hired that his 
salary and his job depended on his ability to make profits. 
The corporation was organized for millions of dollars. 
The manager was expected to make dividends. The 
larger the dividend checks, the higher he was rated. His 
tenure of job and salary were measured by this definition 
of success. To make profits it is necessary to keep down 
the cost of production. The principal item in the cost 
of production is the labor charge, the wages of the men. 
The employee-manager was obliged to set himself to his 
task. One object, one thought, was always before him 
— keep down wages. He drilled this idea into his staff, 
his superintendents and his foremen. The first com- 
mandment of Big Business to the manager was "make 
dividends or quit." 

These large industrial corporations were very fre- 
quently overcapitalized. A corporation representing an 
actual investment of $10,000,000 was organized for $50,- 
000,000. It did not take a financier to see that $40,000,- 
000 of its capitalization was wind, water, fake — a lie. 
The law that gave the corporation a right to exist forgot 
to keef) it under control. The stock was sold, the shares 
representing fiction as well as those representing value. 



46 THE NEW WORLD 

The Captain of Industry spoke of the $40,000,000 of 
overcapitalization as a "melon." The law should have 
written it down as larceny. The selling of this stock was 
nothing more or less than obtaining money under false 
pretenses. When a working man obtained bread under 
false pretenses he was sent to jail. When honest men 
cried out against this grand larceny they were called 
"muckrakers," agitators, and charged with provoking un- 
rest, and disturbing business. If this did not silence 
them, paid publicity told the world that the stock was 
held by widows and orphans; that the attacks upon it 
were efforts to rob them. 

The state, the law and the government had given dol- 
lars the right to organize. A corporation is a union of 
dollars, exactly as organized labor is a union of men. 
The men organized as a matter of self-defense. They 
knew the individual no longer had a chance to register 
his complaint with the owner and that as an individual 
the worker was utterly meaningless in such a large 
scheme. When he complained he was told, "Take things 
as they are, stop whining; if you don't like your job, 
quit. There are thousands of men waiting to step into 
your shoes." 

One of the first things the corporation did was to deny 
to men the right the law gave them — the right to organize. 
In defiance of their attitude the men did organize and 
forged the strike as a weapon with which to fight for 
their rights. The law had not kept pace with the times. 
It failed to furnish protection. It neglected to provide a 
reasonable control over these powerful combinations. 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 47 

Workingmen asked for the privilege of collective bar- 
gain — it was a simple request, a just one; its meaning 
was clear. The men wanted the right to appoint a com- 
mittee to represent them and discuss with the men who 
hired them the terms of employment. The directors, 
generally men who never saw the plant, telegraphed the 
employee boss a command to refuse the demand for col- 
lective bargaining. There was only one reply the men 
could make. They made it. It was force — the strike. 
The last twenty-five years have been filled with strikes, 
which created waste and caused hate, which grew out 
of the refusal of Big Business to concede to men a right 
the law conferred on it, the right to organize. 

When the cost of living forced men to ask for an 
increase in wages they were often met with the answer, 
"We can't afford it." The workers could not afford to 
work longer for the wages they were getting, because 
they were unable to make both ends meet. The pay 
envelope was not large enough. The men pointed to the 
fact that the answer given by capital was not true. To 
show their good faith the capitalists told the general 
public, "We are only making three per cent on our cap- 
ital; men who loan money get five per cent." They did 
not tell the people they were receiving three per cent on 
$50,000,000, while the real capital invested was only $10,- 
000,000. The sweat of men was being used to pay divi- 
dends on $40,000,000 of stock. If the dividends earned 
were distributed over the capital actually invested, $10,- 
000,000, the profits would have been shown in their true 
light. The reasonableness of the demand of the men 



48 THE NEW WORLD 

would have been disclosed. It was a case of crooked 
capitalization, lying to protect its ill-gotten gains. Big 
Business needs ethics — Captains of Industry need ideals. 

The law left the men helpless. They had only one 
course — Fight, Strike! Strikes cause great public in- 
convenience. The people smarting under hardships con- 
demn and blame the strikers. Strikes have another effect 
that is even worse. They harden hate into a concrete 
class feeling. Strikes are responsible for the attitude 
of mind of many working men to-day who say, "I will 
do as little work as possible for the money I get." It is a 
vicious circle of hate. 

Cooperation is made impossible, confidence is de- 
stroyed, trust is killed ; the chasm between employer and 
employee is widened and deepened. A final consequence 
of these physical and psychological effects is the tend- 
ency towards riot. The strike is the training school. It 
creates idleness, hunger, irritation, disregard for law, 
which, when combined and concentrated, make revolu- 
tions. 

The seed of unrest is planted. 

THE WAR TAUGHT THE LESSON OF FORCE 

Making a soldier out of a civilian does more than 
change the clothes he wears. It changes the man. Men 
who had never owned a revolver or rifle, who had never 
even shot one, who had never killed anything in their 
lives, were given firearms. They were drilled, taught to 
shoot, taught to kill. The education was thorough and 
scientific. They learned to look down the sight of a 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 49 

rifle, pick out a human head for a target, fire and eagerly 
watch for the man to fall. They were trained to rush 
madly at a wall of human beings and drive bayonets into 
men's heads and bowels. Many of these men a few 
years before would have fainted in a stockyard where 
cattle were being killed. For four years they have been 
in a human slaughterhouse, not only as spectators, but as 
part of the place. It steeled them and made them im- 
mune. Many of them contracted the undertaker's point 
of view towards life, a fatalism without fear. 

Experience in battle taught them the meaning of the 
word "force." They discovered that the individual was 
only important and efficient when he acted in concert with 
a group. Everything depended upon team work. Men 
learned that a group of men working in harmony, with 
nerve and rifles, with fixed bayonets, could do wonderful 
things. They could take an objective. In other words, 
take the thing they wanted and needed. When these 
men came back into civil life, took off their khaki and 
put on overalls, the taking off of the khaki and the put- 
ting on of working clothes did not erase from their, 
minds the lessons the war had taught. 

This lesson has borne fruit. The men look at the em- 
ployer as an enemy. The employer thinks of them as a 
commodity. Hatred is cordial. The men want some- 
thing. They demand it. The employer refuses. Their 
objective is to get the thing they want and need. The 
war taught them that there is a way, a weapon — Force. 
To-day in Europe men reason, "If we can't get what we 
want, and need, we must take it. We have the force. ,, 



50 THE NEW WORLD 

Having grown habituated to suffering, accustomed to 
blood and death, they look with indifference on the ques- 
tion of danger, of price. They saw that when nations 
could not agree they resorted to force. They discovered 
that victory generally went to the nation possessing the 
greatest force. 

In the labor movement of Europe we have this idea 
in what is called "direct action." "Direct action" is noth- 
ing more or less than applying war methods to peace 
conditions. They seek to secure their objective by force. 
No allowance is made for the fact that methods neces- 
sary in war are not justifiable in peace. 

Many men got, while in the army, their first taste of 
fresh air and decent food. Very properly the allied 
governments gave the best of everything to the men in 
the armies. It isn't difficult to get accustomed to good 
food and fresh air ; it is hard to go back to poor food and 
the tenements. Back home, many of the demobilized 
soldiers are not eating as well or as much as they ate 
during their service. Despite the rigid discipline of army 
life, men are treated as men. The humblest man in the 
ranks has rights that must be respected. This is not 
always the case in civil life. Then, too, while in uniform 
the private was made much of. He was looked upon 
as one of his country's heroes. 

Since the war ended he has been demobilized, forgot- 
ten and neglected. This has soured him. He resents it. 
Social distinction has come back. Now he is only a 
working man. 

Another cause of unrest among the workingmen of 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 51 

Europe grows also out of the war. Mobilization took 
millions of men from their jobs. A great shortage of 
labor resulted. Employers competed with one another 
to get men. The usual competition was among men to 
get jobs. The law of supply and demand affected the 
labor market, wages went up. The soldier went off to 
war. While he was in the trenches the wages back 
home were high. His pay was small. Our righting 
men were not interested in pay. They went to fight for 
a principle. 

With the coming of peace a large quantity of labor 
was dumped upon the market. The demobilized men 
rushed for employment. Comrades in arms became com- 
petitors for jobs. The same old law of supply and de- 
mand started wages in Europe tobogganing. The 
number of men who wanted jobs was much greater than 
the number of places available. The returning soldier 
seeking a job was offered a much smaller wage than he 
knew was paid for the same work while he had been 
fighting. It incensed him. He figured that he had given 
four years out of his life, had come home tired and 
broke. He looked upon the decline in wages as a posi- 
tive discrimination against him. 

Everywhere I have heard these men say: 

We are out of luck. The bands played and we were 
applauded when we left to fight. While we were gone wages 
went up. We don't begrudge the men who stayed at home 
the wages they got, but it's damned funny that when we 
come back, down go wages. The cost of living don't go 
down. I guess we're out of luck. 



52 THE NEW WORLD 

I found two phrases inseparable in the speech of the 
discontented, "the high cost of living" and "the profit- 
eer." Workingmen with whom I talked, freely admitted 
that some of the high cost of living was the legitimate 
result of the great demand for everything and the natural 
shortage, but in the same breath they insisted that much 
of it was due to the mercenary, ghoulish profiteer. 

The profiteer took blood money during the world's 
greatest tragedy. He exacted usury from the toiler at 
home and the fighting man at the front. He drew divi- 
dends out of the tears and wails of broken-hearted 
women and fright-stricken children. He minted his 
gold out of agony, starvation, heartaches. He stands 
to-day the Judas of the war, the most despised man of 
earth. 

The profiteer is not an Englishman, a Frenchman, Ita- 
lian nor an American. He is found in every country of 
the world, a man without nationality, without con- 
science, without humanity. He is the pimp of civiliza- 
tion, and is still on the job. The profiteer has blackened 
the reputation of America. 

A common comment of Europe is, 'The United States 
made money out of the war." These people do not refer 
to the money made legitimately. They point to the 
fact, a fact given great publicity in Europe, that in 
August, 1 914, there were about 7,000 American million- 
aires; while at the time of the signing of the Armistice 
it was estimated "the millionaire colony had increased 
by 23,000, making a total of 30,000 millionaires in the 
United States." 



UNREST BEFORE THE WAR 53 

Under date of November 17, 1919, J. S. Bache & Co., 
members of the New York Stock Exchange, in their 
financial letter said, "In mercantile circles there is pro- 
ceeding, at the present time, a vast amount of specula- 
tion on a very large scale in commodities. An incident 
is cited to us of one concern that is carrying $15,000,000 
worth of vegetable oils, which are in great demand, and 
the concern is holding them for higher prices. This is 
a distinct damage to the consumers, and keeps living 
prices in these things, used daily, at top and increasing 
levels. Speculation of this kind is a real detriment to the 
community." It is only a sample of the profiteer's work. 

The pair of shoes the workingman once bought for 
$3.50 are now $8 and $10. It is true that the cost of 
labor and material have gone up, but not enough to war- 
rant any such exorbitant prices. Some business men 
have taken advantage of the situation, and justify their 
larcenies on the ground of the law of supply and demand. 
A shoe man with a prominent Chicago firm, a man long 
in the business, told me that the present unwarranted and 
outrageous price of shoes was due to the fact that Amer- 
ican shoe manufacturers could get almost any price for 
shoes from the barefooted people of Europe. 

Governments are blamed for not dealing with this 
species of holdup. No wonder the discontented ask, 
"Why isn't profiteering treason — why shouldn't these 
'Fagins' be sent to the wall with a firing squad as an 
escort ?" 

The 4 profiteer is still on the job. 

He is holding up the world, a stricken world. 



CHAPTER V 
A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 

Europe was succumbing to exhaustion when the war 
came to an end. • The terrible waste was telling. Endur- 
ance had reached the breaking point. With peace there 
came the one thought. There must be no more war. 
The men who did the fighting voiced it loudest. 

"I'm glad I had a chance to do my part — I wouldn't 
have missed the 'show' for a million dollars, and 1 
wouldn't take a million dollars to go* through it again," 
is the way they put it. Everywhere in Europe one heard, 
"It is over, it is finished, thank God." 

The first thought of reconstruction was a plan to make 
peace permanent. 

The laboratory and the machine shop gave to this war 
their terrible new agencies to kill and maim men. There 
had been invented liquid fire, mustard gas, high ex- 
plosives, bombs from the clouds, torpedoes from the sea 
depths. The world was horror stricken. The length 
of the conflict, the number of dead and crippled, the 
raiding and bombing of defenseless cities taught the 
world that an end must be put to war if civilization is 
to live. 

So the people, particularly the working people, took 

54 



A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 55 

heart when a League of Nations was suggested as a 
means of enforcing peace. They placed their hopes in 
it. They had suffered most from the war. The dead 
were largely their dead. The returning cripples were 
blood of their blood. As they put it, they were from 
their class. Of course the sons of the other class fought, 
shared the hardships, paid the price, but they were com- 
paratively few. The group from which they came is 
small, while the toll of casualties from labor's ranks 
is large. 

Controversies between nations have always been in- 
evitable. In the absence of some scheme of arbitration 
there was but one way that these controversies could be 
settled. It was force — War. 

It is common for individuals to have serious differ- 
ences of opinion. Every lawsuit, and there are thou- 
sands of them in every city of every country, represents 
a difference of opinion. If we did not have courts pro- 
viding a peaceful determination of these disputes, the 
litigants would be compelled to settle their differences by 
force. Assault and battery would succeed orderly pro- 
cedure. Nations have been without a peaceful means of 
adjusting their difficulties, and as a consequence they 
have been compelled to resort to force. 

The peace conference met in Paris. Labor watched 
it. At an early stage in its proceedings, intrigue was 
discovered. Wrangling, bickering, bargaining and trad- 
ing for commercial advantage occupied the time and 
thought that the world expected would be devoted to 
the building up of a league that would at least decrease 



56 THE NEW WORLD 

the chances of future wars. Statesmen in their blind 
devotion to expediency lost sight of the great reason for 
the conference. They talked of boundary lines, dis- 
cussed frontiers, and always from the point of view of 
financial and military advantage to their respective coun- 
tries. It was noticed that the territories over which they 
quarreled were rich in minerals or some other products 
of great commercial advantage. They squabbled over 
spoils. Then, too, these men who were supposed to be 
concerned in the future peace of the world, in arguing 
over frontiers urged their claims on the grounds that 
their respective countries needed these frontiers to make 
them secure in future wars. What future wars and why 
the discussion of future wars at a conference, the object 
of which was future peace? 

Working men watched, listened and thought. They 
construed these bickerings and wranglings as evidence of 
the fact that there is an interest in the world which does 
not believe in giving up force. I am only reporting the 
truth when I add they suspect this interest is Capital. 

If the League of Nations fails this suspicion will be 
confirmed. The movement toward an internationalism 
of the workers will be given great impetus. The League 
of Nations failing, they argue there is only one other 
means of preventing war. It is for the men who make 
up the rank and file of the armies in time of war, the 
millions recruited from shops, factories and fields, to get 
together and organize an international labor authority to 
save the working men from war. Such a movement 
would take away from governments an important and 



A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 57 

necessary function and give to one class in the world a 
power so great that political governments would be pup- 
pets in their hands, and yet in the light of the happenings 
of the last five years labor should not be blamed. The 
world is entitled to protection against such slaughter as 
it has just gone through, and if the political governments 
fail to take the necessary steps the plain people will. 

Internationalism is coming — in fact, it is already here. 
Inventions have brought the people of the world closer 
together. The wireless and the cable give us the happen- 
ings of remote parts of the world in a few hours. Dis- 
tance has been destroyed. We are becoming neighbors 
in knowledge of each other, whether we live on the same 
continent or not. Modern transportation is shortening 
the time between places. An air service is in prospect 
which promises to make London as near New York to- 
morrow as Chicago is to-day. 

We already have successful internationalism in finance 
and credits. Big business long ago obliterated national 
lines. The commerce of the world is organized inter- 
nationally. 

! The important question is: What form will the new 
internationalism take? Will it be an internationalism of 
organized dollars? If so, the world is in serious danger 
of a financial autocracy. Will it be an internationalism 
of organized labor? This means the dictatorship of the 
proletariat. Both are equally undesirable. No part of 
the people should be permitted to enforce their will upon 
the rest* One kind of slavery is as bad as another. The 
great majority of the human race wants freedom, not 



58 THE NEW WORLD 

advantage. It is not ambitious to dictate — it will not 
brook dictation. 

A League of Nations is the solution. It is a union of 
the nations of the world, and as the nations of the world 
represent all the people of the various states such a com- 
bination is democratic. That it is necessary is plain. 
Rivalry for markets, competition for trade, are bound 
to lead to war unless there is an agreement that these 
and other problems will be submitted to arbitration. It 
is not necessary to submit questions* involving national 
honor. Few of such questions ever directly provoke 
war. It is when nations fighting each other for markets 
reach a point of positive disagreement that they begin 
calling each other names. These insults wound honor, 
war results. 

A League of Nations is a continuance of the peace 
table, and notwithstanding the wranglings of the peace 
table there would have been war in Europe before this 
if it had not been sitting in Paris. Two cases serve to 
illustrate. The coal fields of upper Galicia, to be deter- 
mined by the plebiscite between Poland and Germany, 
would have been a cause of war if the peace table had 
not been in existence. Poland had troops on the border. 
Germany had her soldiers at the frontier. One thing, 
and one thing alone, prevented war — it was the fear of 
the peace table. The same facts described the contro- 
versy between Poland and Czecho-Slovakia; war was 
avoided by the peace table submitting the Teschen ques- 
tion to a vote of the people of the territory. 
| No League of Nations which does not include the 



A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 59 

United States will have much effect upon the future 
peace of Europe. The nations of Europe distrust each 
other, but each one respects the fact that the United 
States does not seek territory in Europe. This gives 
America the commanding place. With this moral force 
we can do much to maintain the peace of the world. 

The propaganda of revolution coming out of Bol- 
shevist Russia, urging the workers to organize an inter- 
national dictatorship of the proletariat and seize the 
world, is not nearly as dangerous to the peace of the 
world as the political heckling against the League of 
Nations. 

The Bolsheviki are the sworn enemies of the League 
of Nations. In their proclamation calling the first Con- 
gress of the Communist International, afterwards known 
as the Third International, issued on February 24, 191 9, 
the Soviet government called the proletariat of all coun- 
tries to oppose any League of Nations, saying, "The 
danger is that this revolution may be killed by the resist- 
ance of the capitalistic state, which organized a League 
of Nations against the revolution." The Bolsheviki 
favor an internationalism, but of a different kind, a dic- 
tatorship of the proletariat, and to get it they advocate 
the overthrow of all existing governments. The political 
hecklers in America who are assailing the League of 
Nations are playing into the hands of the Russian 
"Reds." They are giving aid and comfort, strength and 
support, to the internationalism of disorder. While it is 
true that America's sovereignty should be safeguarded 
by reasonable and proper reservations, it is nevertheless 



60 THE NEW WORLD 

true that these reservations should be considered and 
adopted without any thought of the effect upon the presi- 
dential election of 1920. The failure to establish a 
League of Nations would be a world tragedy and in its 
wake may come revolution. The ground gained by the 
war would be lost and the dead would have died in vain, 
for they fought to end autocracy and its champion, mili- 
tarism. Until some plan is evolved which will provide 
machinery for the arbitration of differences between na- 
tions, all talk of peace is wasting words; the hope of 
ending war is idle dreaming. 

THE "RED" FLAG IN EUROPE 

Radicalism in Europe is rampant. The workers are 
active, the middle class sympathetic. Industrial centers 
are hotbeds. The conservatism of the farmers and peas- 
ants is breaking down. It is hard to define this radical- 
ism — it is without form. It has no definite program, it 
isn't even political. The people are dissatisfied. The 
"Red" flag is popular. It promises a short cut. It an- 
swers the cry of the impatient. I was surprised to see 
many of the men who fought so gallantly under their 
country's flag and who but yesterday would have torn 
the "Red" flag from the flagpole, now defending it, carry- 
ing it and following it. The majority of them do not 
know what the "Red" flag stands for. To them it repre- 
sents a protest against things as they are. The attitude 
of mind of the workers in Europe is eagerness for a 
change — some change — any change. Every one knows 



A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 61 

the symptoms, understands what is wrong, but the 
remedy is only vaguely discussed. 

I attach much significance to the new attitude of or- 
ganized labor in Europe. Labor unions formerly con- 
cerned themselves with wages, terms of employment, 
shop conditions, safety appliances, recognition of their 
right of collective bargaining. Since the war the labor 
movement has taken up questions entirely outside of its 
field, questions properly the concern of all the people, 
questions of government policy. I have in mind recent 
demands made by the working men in England, France 
and Italy. These demands were addressed to the regu- 
larly and properly elected representatives of the people, 
the governments. They were accompanied by threats of 
general strikes if they were not acceded to. This step 
is an innovation; it is revolutionary. 

The working men are citizens and have a voice in the 
government equal with all other citizens. After the 
people have selected their representatives, the men 
chosen should be responsible to all of the people with- 
out regard to class or station. A government by one por- 
tion of the people is autocratic. Government of the peo- 
ple, for the people, and by the people, means all of the 
people. The effort on the part of minority in the labor 
movement, who challengingly call themselves socialists, 
to dictate to the state, representing all of the people, is 
an attack upon democracy. If successful it would de- 
stroy the state and leave the great majority of the people, 
including the workers, less free than they are now. What 



62 THE NEW WORLD 

sane man, whether he is a working man or not, is in 
favor of minority government? 

I witnessed many demonstrations in Europe under the 
"Red" flag, in which the leaders demanded from the gov- 
ernment three things. 

First, they demanded the release of all the men in jail 
who were held for political crimes. These included men 
found guilty of sedition and treason during the war. I 
cannot understand this demand. Why should men be re- 
leased from custody who sought to stab in the back the 
men who went to the trenches to fight and die for free- 
dom? I should much prefer to see all of the burglars 
released. If I am compelled to choose between the traitor 
and the burglar, I will have no trouble in making my 
decision. 

Second, they demanded that no soldiers be sent to 
Russia. The agitation on this point was so strong that 
when the British government attempted to send soldiers 
to Russia last summer, the soldiers mutinied, and so far 
as I am able to learn the feeling was so acute, the situa- 
tion so critical, the government dared not court-martial 
them. 

Third, they demanded that all conscription laws be 
abolished. 

It is apparent that these demands, coming from a 
minority, backed by a threat, constitute an invasion of 
the rights of the people. The question is not whether or 
not one believes these things should be done ; the issue is 
the method resorted to. I do not believe soldiers should 
be sent to Russia; I never have. In my opinion allied 



A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 63 

intermeddling has been harmful, but if these matters of 
general public policy are to be decided, all of the people 
should have a vote in the verdict. 

This new attitude of labor, in conjunction with the 
growing popularity of "direct action," indicates that the 
labor movement is losing faith in law and political action. 
I am not saying that labor's experience with politics, the 
betrayal by men it has supported, and the default of po- 
litical parties to carry out preelection pledges, may not 
be responsible for a distrust in political government. I 
am not denying that capital has had the ear of govern- 
ment more than it should; that property has been given 
more thought than human beings. I am concerned with 
the danger these innovations promise, a danger to the 
working men themselves, a menace to law and order, 
without which no one is secure, without which there can 
be no freedom. 

I heard a speech in London that impressed me deeply. 
It was applauded by several thousand men and women — 
average good British working people, most of whom 
wore service badges. The speaker, a clean young Eng- 
lishman of about thirty-five, said: 

Political action is a failure. We vote and we are be- 
trayed. Political parties are the agents of bands of capital. 
Their purpose is to keep the workers apart, knowing that 
divided we are powerless. The only time they are willing 
we should unite is when war calls for men. What did we 
win in the war? Nothing. We thought we had a stake in 
the game, that the hand we were playing was our own. 
Now tnat it is over we have discovered that we won nothing. 

What did the working man ever get by voting, except 



64 THE NEW WORLD 

the worst of it? The word vote comes from a Latin word, 
meaning "to wish." Who ever got anything by wishing? 

We are like the story in Bellamy's "Looking Backward" 
You remember he spoke of a coach. On top of this coach 
the capitalists sit in the sunshine enjoying the ride. On 
the side of the coach, hanging by their fingernails and toe- 
nails, are the hundreds of thousands who make up the middle 
class. Millions of men are pulling the coach. They are 
sweating and trudging — they are the working men. Run- 
ning along the side of the coach are millions more, fighting 
to get a chance to get hold of the rope and pull the coach. 
They are the idle. There is only one thing to do. That is 
to stop pulling the coach, let go of the rope. Don't wish 
about it; do it. The fellows on the top of the coach don't do 
any wishing — they boss and drive. 

The crowd cheered. There was truth in the speech. 
The working man has not had a square deal, but this, 
fact does not make the plan of direct action a sane, wise 
plan. Revolution would only lead to blood and disorder 
and leave the very men who revolted in a far worse 
plight. The millions who are the majority have an infi- 
nitely better weapon than force. They have the ballot. 
They are in the majority. Men must think their way out 
of the wilderness. They cannot fight their way out. 
When they try to they go deeper in. 

I found the word Bolshevism in the minds and on the 
lips of the working people of Europe. I expected to find 
them anti-Bolsheviki if for no other reason than that 
Bolshevism came from Russia and the Bolsheviki made 
peace with Germany while the Allies were in a death 
struggle with her. I found them confessing their faith 



A TRAGEDY OF POLITICS 65 

in Bolshevism, speaking of it as a new religion, resent- 
ing the obstacles their own governments had placed in 
its way. 

Ireland was the last place in which I expected to hear 
the word Bolshevism. The Irish people are in many re- 
spects the most conservative in the world. History shows 
that their only radicalism has been uprisings seeking 
national freedom. The Irish are a people of reminiscence 
and tradition. Eighty per cent of the Irish are Roman 
Catholics, and no single power has so consistently and 
continuously fought socialism as the Catholic Church. I 
attended the Irish Trade and Labor Assembly held in 
August, 1919, at Drogheda. The delegates to this 
National Convention of Organized Labor in Ireland 
represented approximately three hundred thousand 
union men and women. The delegates came from 
Ulster and from the south and west of Ireland. In this 
Convention were Sinn Feiners, Nationalists and Union- 
ists. A resolution sending greetings and sympathy 
to the Soviet government was passed by the delegates. 
Delegates who held opposite opinions on the Irish ques- 
tion stood together and voted for the Bolshevist resolu- 
tion. Later I learned that few of them if any knew the 
facts about the Bolshevist program, its aims, aspirations 
and methods. I asked a leading spirit at the convention 
if he believed in communism, the abolition of private 
ownership of property, and he made quick answer: "Of 
course not. Such a theory is rank norsense. It is 
socialism. It is impossible and impracticable." 

I found this same paradox in England and on the 



66 THE NEW WORLD 

continent. Frequently workmen are Bolsheviki because 
the employers are opposed to it, and many employers 
are against Bolshevism because organized workingmen 
lean toward it. 

The United States Senate Sub-Committee on the 
Judiciary, after a searching investigation of Bolshevism, 
reported that through utter ignorance of what Bolshe- 
vism means as a code of political and social morals in 
Russia, every dissatisfied element in the United States 
has seized upon it as something of a Utopian nature; 
this finding holds good as to Europe. 

"It is interesting to note," the Senate Committee re- 
ports, "that every witness called before the Committee as 
a champion of the cause of the principles of the Russian 
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic admitted that he or 
she had never read the constitution of the (Bolshevist) 
government of which he was the champion." The same 
charge could be truthfully laid at the door of most of 
those who oppose the Soviet scheme. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE WORD BOLSHEVISM HAS SEIZED UPON THE 
IMAGINATION OF THE WORLD 

I met a young American major just back from the 
French front. Before the United States entered the 
war he was one of the many impatient at our delay. He 
believed it was our duty to join the fight when the ruth- 
less submarine campaign torpedoed the Lusitania, 
sending to sea graves American women and children. I 
distinctly remember his face as he read the headlines in 
the papers telling of the murderous slaughter of our 
people on the high seas. After his first greeting he 
startled me with "The war is over. I'm a Bolshevik." 
I did not know what the word meant, yet it carried 
to my mind an impression, and, while the impression 
was hazy, it was clear at least in one particular. It 
sounded like the confession of a crime. 

He had always been of a quiet, conservative type. 
Before the war one would have almost judged him a 
pacifist; he was even-tempered, mild of manner, and I 
think that before August, 1914, he was a pacifist in 
head and heart. It was only the call of a just cause, 
the fight for an ideal in which he believed, that had 
made 'him a soldier. In this respect he was typical 
of 90 per cent of his countrymen. 

67 



68 THE NEW WORLD 

I had spoken to him the day he enlisted. He was one 
of those who volunteered, who might have waited for 
conscription and claimed a just exemption. He was in 
the beginning of his married life, with two very young 
children. By profession he was an engineer. Going to 
war meant leaving a wife and two babies, leaving a job 
that promised advancement. I recall his enthusiasm, 
the intensity of his patriotism, his quiet disregard of the 
danger to himself. I am sure that there was little hate 
in his make-up. He saw a danger to the world. The 
honor of his country had been offended. He was an 
American, one of those upon whom the duty fell, so he 
went. 

He, a Bolshevik! Why? I was confounded, con- 
fused. The only meaning I gave to his remark was 
that he was an anarchist. The , word "Bolshevik" 
sounded "Red" to me. It flared of the torch, photo- 
graphed disorder, lawlessness — it registered blood, vio- 
lence, assassination, force, hate, insanity. I wondered 
how this word had become the vehicle for so many 
sensations that disturbed peace of mind and sounded 
alarm. 

From whence had the word come and what company 
had it kept that so fouled its soul? What did it really 
mean — had it a definite meaning? Was it a bug like the 
"flu" germ ? Had it come among nations to destroy them 
and to the hearts of men to silence the message. "Peace 
on earth, good will to men." Would it run around the 
world as a scourge? Was it a postscript to the bloody 
war lesson, prophesying more anguish and tears than four 



BOLSHEVISM AND IMAGINATION 69 

years' fighting had brought? Would the world, coming 
out of the war bent, now be broken? 

Or was it meaningless myth? Was the word a bogie, 
a bad joke, a nightmare pressing heavily on a tired, 
nervous world's head? 

Or was the meaning that men had read into the word 
a lie? Was Bolshevism the message of a new Messiah 
being cried down by the money-changers of our time 
in the same way their ancestors had silenced the word 
from the Mount and destroyed the Message Bearer with 
the lash and the cross? 

In every mind was the thought and from every tongue 
fell the word. Russia had given the world a word. It 
had encircled the globe. Everywhere people were 
speaking the word — it found a place in every language. 
Its use had become universal. The old, the young, rich 
and poor, the learned, the uneducated, the serious, the 
simple, the toiler, the artist, the poet, and the peddler, 
the tinker and the thinker, held the thought and spoke 
the word. Men, women and children spoke the word, 
read the word, and felt the thought it carried. 

To the nine hundred and ninety-nine it was a word 
of ill-omen, a word of terror and fear. To the one in 
a thousand it was a word of hope, a light for the feet 
of a stumbling world. The 999 said that some of these 
people called Bolsheviki were dreamers of a strange 
dream, that twisted idealism had made them mad, that 
the majority of those who profess faith in Bolshevism 
were sick with a strange, social fever, that they were 



70 THE NEW WORLD 

mischief-makers, ne'er-do-wells, criminals, that they 
sought to burn the world. 

The dictionary definition threw no light on the mean- 
ing of the word. I decided that to learn what Bolshevism 
is I might with wisdom adopt the scientific method used 
by the doctor of medicine in arriving at a diagnosis. The 
doctor examines and gathers the symptoms, the mean- 
ing of the disease. He then determines what diseases 
might produce these symptoms. By a process of elim- 
ination he discards one possibility after another until 
at last there is but one disease left, one thing that the 
symptoms can mean. 

Most of us have the habit of using terms loosely. 
Seldom do we give time or thought to the exact, real 
meaning of things. The meaning of Bolshevism is too 
important to the world not to try to understand it. 
There is a difference between having the acquaintance of 
a word and knowing it; the former is a mere intro- 
duction, the latter an intimacy. 

The word Bolshevism has become an epithet, a popu- 
lar invective, a slur, an insult, an outlet for contempt, 
contumely and hate. Its parentage influences our defin- 
ition of it. Most of us see the Russians with the eyes 
of the caricaturists, who for so many years have por- 
trayed the Russian as the moujik with high boots, di- 
sheveled hair, wild whiskers, the face of an assassin, the 
body of a terrorist in action, the suggestion of a long 
dagger smeared with hot blood, under his great coat. 

Since the war, when the fastidious diner wearily orders 
his consomme and the waiter brings it a bit tardily or 



BOLSHEVISM AND IMAGINATION 71 

cold, he thinks to himself or, if courageous enough to 
speak his mind, he calls the cook a Bolshevik. He has 
found a word to express his irritation. It serves his 
profane feelings and at the same time saves his smug 
respectability. 

Once the maid asking for an afternoon off provoked 
a knowing smile. Her mistress granted the request, 
charged it up to a possible romance and generally sus- 
pected the policeman on the beat. Since the war it is 
different. The maid is looked upon with suspicion. Her 
motives are questioned. The request is considered a 
symptom of the new terrible disease, Bolshevism. The 
mistress thinks to herself: "The maid doesn't want to 
work any more ; she is down with the epidemic." 

The office boy, working the reliable excuse that his 
grandmother had died again, to get an afternoon off 
to go to the ball game, is trying to shirk work, in the 
opinion of his employer, who formerly, when such an 
application was made from the same source, chuckled 
as he granted it, while his memory took him back 
to his own boyhood days when he used the grandmother 
yarn to answer the call of the ball field. 

Many captains of industry see the symptoms of the 
new dread in every movement and thought of the work- 
ers. The demand for living conditions and decent wages 
are grudgingly received by minds soured with the 
thought that it is Bolshevism. 

The hirers of child labor, looking hatefully at legis- 
lation Resigned to end child slavery, call the leaders 
of child life conservation, Bolsheviki. When doctors 



72 THE NEW WORLD 

and public-spirited men and women insist that an irrep- 
arable injury is being done the nation in allowing 
women to work for a period in excess of the hours 
they are able to work without menacing their mother- 
hood, the profiteers from woman labor cry out : "You are 
invading the right of private contract ; you are mad with 
Bolshevism." 

The wag with the wit of a barber defines Bolshevism 
as a wild idea surrounded by whiskers. The saloon- 
keeper, bowled over by prohibition, screams "Bolshe- 
vism." The anti-saloon leaders come back with the 
answer, "Your 'personal liberty' cry is only a camouflage 
for Bolshevism." 

If any one disagrees with you, don't grant him the 
right to an opinion, don't reason with him — just call 
him a Bolshevik. 

If a doctor, making an examination of all of the 
patients in a hospital, discovered they all had certain 
symptoms in common, such as temperature, weakness 
and pain, and because of these findings should diagnose 
the sickness of all of the patients as pneumonia, the 
doctor would be regarded a lunatic, yet there are 
men in the world to-day who are as foolish as such a 
doctor would be. They call every symptom of unrest, 
without regard to its history, Bolshevism. 

BOLSHEVISM IS SOCIALISM PLUS FORCE 

If I were asked to name the principal cause for the 
growing unrest my answer would be Bolshevism. The 
almost universal attitude of big business toward Rus- 



BOLSHEVISM AND IMAGINATION 73 

sian Bolshevism — an attitude adopted by most of the 
governments of Europe — has been, and is, Kill it; don't 
waste time examining it ; it isn't worth trying to under- 
stand ; no good can come of it ; it must be fought $ it isn't 
entitled to a trial. Reams of paper have been used to 
assail it. Captains of industry and government officials 
have vied With each other in making assault on it. Many 
who oppose Bolshevism are indignant if you ask them 
what it is and why they oppose it. They characterize it, 
attack it, resent it, discuss it without throwing any light 
on the subject. Absurd lies have been told about Bolshe- 
vism. Later these unnecessary lies have been exploded, 
with the result that suspicion has been bred, unrest fed. 
The effect upon the workers has been to increase hate 
for their employers and destroy an already weakened 
faith in government. 

Whether Bolshevism is right or wrong, whether it is a, 
good thing or a bad thing, it is at least a definite political 
plan, worthy of being examined, measured, weighed and 
tested. It is entitled to a hearing on its merits. It can- 
not be howled down in abuse. 

Leaders in the campaign against it frequently and 
confusingly define it as anarchy. If there is one 
thing that Bolshevism is not, it is anarchy. Much con- 
troversy will be avoided, many differences of opinion 
dissolved if we once come to a fair and open under- 
standing of the Bolshevist program. We are too prone 
to form opinions without information, rush to judg- 
ments without understanding, and then stubbornly close. 



74 THE NEW WORLD 

our minds. Much of the discord and strife of life 
in big things, as well as in little matters, is due to this 
habit. Anarchy is not criminal lawlessness. This is the 
popular misconception of the term. Say "anarchist" 
and the average man or woman thinks of a bomb- 
thrower, a dynamiter, a firebrand. Such a man is not an 
anarchist; he is a terrorist, a criminal, a destructionist, 
a murderer. 

Anarchism is an old and respectable philosophy. The 
anarchist is an individualist. He is in favor of a free 
life for the individual. He is opposed to turning over 
the individual's power to the state. He argues that 
great power delegated to government limits the growth 
and freedom of the individual. He dreams of an ideal 
state in which human beings will be so perfect they 
need no law. His doctrine is an enlargement, and exag- 
geration of the idea that the government which governs 
least governs best. He isn't a lawbreaker. He is a law 
abolisher. He reasons that when murder leaves the 
human heart there will be no occasion for laws against 
killing; that the statute against murder is only printed 
words on the page of a law book, utterly and entirely 
without meaning, or existence to the man who is incap- 
able of killing his fellow man. The anarchist says, that 
we should develop our artistic and moral sides and by 
evolution gradually repeal one law after another until all 
law disappears. It is pure idealism — it is a movement 
toward perfection. It is the millennium. It is poetry. 
Kipling wrote its constitution when he wrote: 



BOLSHEVISM AND IMAGINATION 75 

And only the Master shall praise us, 

And only the Master shall blame, 
And no one shall work for money, 

And no one shall work for fame, 
But each for the joy of working, 

Each in his separate star 
Shall draw the Thing as he sees it 

For the God of Things as They Are. 

Few people will contend that this theory is anything 
more than a beautiful dream. Probably the first and 
greatest of the anarchists was the great Greek philoso- 
pher Zeno, from Crete, the founder of the stoic philoso- 
phy, who died 270 years B. C. It is disturbing to find 
dynamiters called anarchists, and in the same breath 
hear included some of the greatest idealists that have 
ever trod the earth. The very mention of the two 
types in the same class gives respectability to the totally 
ugly, depraved, ignorant, lawless criminal. 

I went to a standard authority for a comon-sense 
definition of Bolshevism. I was in Prague on my way 
to the Bolshevist front. I spent an afternoon with 
President Thomas G. Masaryk of the new Czecho- 
Slovakian republic. He is a Slav. He knows Russia. 
He was in Russia during the revolution and at the 
beginning of the counter-revolution which put Bolshevism 
in the saddle. He has written of Russia and is a 
recognized authority on the subject. I asked him, 
"What is Bolshevism?" His answer was: "Bolshevism 
is consistent socialism." 

Bolshevism is an old, untried theory of government. 



76 THE NEW WORLD 

Its object is to secure a greater production and a 
more just distribution. Socialism says that men are 
without motive for efficient work to-day because they do 
not get a fair share of the things they produce; that 
the way to stimulate production is to adopt common 
ownership. Under such a plan, it is claimed every man 
would be working for himself, in the sense that all would 
be working for the state, and that as all are an equal 
part of the state their interests would be common and 
mutual. The Socialist says if all the people of the 
world were at work they could produce an abundance 
of everything necessary for the world's happiness and 
comfort, every one would have all he needed, no one 
would have more than another and it would be to the 
interests of each individual to work to shorten his own 
workday. 

The program of socialism promises the destruction 
of all private ownership. There will be no such thing 
as private property. No one will own land. The land, 
the factories, the railroads, the mines, everything, will 
be owned in common. The state will hold title to 
everything, manage everything and distribute the prod- 
uct. This plan abolishes profits, rent and private 
capitalism. 

To understand this doctrine it is necessary to clearly 
know the meaning of the word "Capital." Many peo- 
ple confuse the word "capital" with the word "money." 
These words have totally different meanings. Money is 
the metal or paper used by a government to make easy 
the exchange of products. Without money the world 



BOLSHEVISM AND IMAGINATION 77 

would go back to the barter system, in which the man who 
had corn traded it for meat, clothes, and the others 
things he needed. Capital is the unconsumed product 
of labor. In other words, all of the food, cloth, clothing, 
machinery, etc., in the world is its capital, just as a man's 
capital is the food he has in the cupboard, the clothes 
he hasn't worn out, the money in the bank which rep- 
resents a power to buy. It is the surplus. It is the 
reserve. 

Plato, the Greek philosopher, was one of the first 
socialists. In the republic of Plato there is a defense of 
state socialism. From Plato to Lenin men have been 
urging communism as a cure for the ills of the world, 
as a remedy for wrong, as a means of realizing exact 
justice. 

Modern socialism dates from the "Communist Mani- 
festo," published in 1848, by Karl Marx and Frederick 
Engels. Their outline of the socialist plan seized upon 
the thought of the world. Since that day it has been 
gathering the dissatisfied of the world and grouping 
them in a class, developing what they term a "class 
consciousness." Back of it has been an insistent, unin- 
terrupted propaganda which has reached all corners of 
the globe. Billions of leaflets, pamphlets, tracts and 
books have been circulated. Millions of speeches have 
been made. Drawing-rooms have been thrown open 
to it, highbrows have professed the faith, lowbrows have 
thundered the creed from soapboxes on the street corners. 
It has flourished best in Europe. It has furnished prime 
ministers. Its voice to-day in the parliaments of Europe 



78 THE NEW WORLD 

is not a whisper — it is a shout. In the new governments 
which have come out of the war it is a militant, dominant 
factor. 

The Bolshevism of Russia is pure socialism — literal 
communism. At this juncture I am not writing of the 
methods of the Bolsheviki. First, I want to make clear 
and simple their plan. Bolshevism is an effort to put 
into practice the doctrine preached by Plato, pro- 
grammed by Marx. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE TEST 

Advocates of the "Red flag" remedy have been de- 
manding a trial, a test. The demand has been growing. 
Before they can be silenced they must be shown. Out of 
the test of socialism in Russia is bound to come good. 
Whether the theory is practical or not, putting it to the 
test will answer the question, satisfy the demand, and 
tend to quiet unrest. 

The fair-minded investigator must acknowledge there 
was justification and reason in trying the remedy. That 
the world has been suffering from poverty cannot be de- 
nied. I have found few men even among the conserva- 
tive, responsible leaders of business and governments in 
Europe unwilling to admit that conditions before the 
war were not right ; that many changes were inevitable ; 
that the dissatisfied elements in society were coming to- 
gether and that unless men were given better lives, they 
were determined to fight. The working man was de- 
teriorating physically under the strain of brutal working 
conditions which exacted too many units of physical 
energy for the number of calories of food he was get- 
ting. ♦ The hemoglobin count, the red corpuscles, were 
disappearing from the blood of the working people. It 

79 



So THE NEW WORLD 

was not a theory ; one could see it in the faces and move- 
ments of the people. Medical men recognized the fact. 
A walk through the poorer district of any industrial 
city in Europe furnished plenty of evidence of this 
alarming condition. Men, women and children were 
resorting to false stimulants to keep up. Tea, coffee 
and alcohol were being used in increasing amounts. 

Men were stretching their arms and yawning. Squalor 
and filth reeked in the homes. Many lived in abject 
poverty, many more lived on the border line of the 
garbage alley. Few were able to garner even the small- 
est surplus. It had become a hand-to-mouth existence, 
a fight to meet the grocery bills, buy stockings, shoes, and 
the scant amount of clothes to cover their bodies. It 
was bread and coffee for breakfast, bread and tea for 
dinner, tea and cheese for supper. Sausage sometimes 
took turns with cheese. Once a week, the Sunday repast, 
a stew — a few vegetables and a bone. In the Latin 
countries it was the same, except that diluted cheap wine 
substituted for tea. Men found themselves poorer and 
older at the end of the week than they were at its begin- 
ning. Over the workingman's head suspended night and 
day by a thin, weak thread, the dreaded sword of pov- 
erty. The thread might break at any minute. It was 
the thread by which they held the thing called a "job." 
What did they care about the rights of private property? 
They didn't have any private property. The Socialists 
had willing listeners when they ranted of communism. 
It promised to give these people property, to give them 
a common ownership of everything. It wasn't hard to 



THE TEST 81 

convince propertyless workingmen that this was better 
than ownership of nothing. 

The Bolsheviki of Russia are entitled to the presump- 
tion of good faith in selecting the Marxian formula. It 
is only fair to them, and to the remedy, to examine the 
experiment with a mind free from prejudice. In admit- 
ting the good intentions of the Bolsheviki I am not con- 
ceding that Bolshevism is practicable, workable; that 
it has succeeded or can succeed. For the present I am 
trying to give fairly the whole story of the effort. It is 
as foolish to try to answer the Bolshevist propaganda by 
calling the Bolsheviki ugly names, as it would be stupid 
to accept Bolshevism because its advocates are sincere. 

Russia is the patient. If we are to intelligently judge 
the treatment called Bolshevism, it is necessary to get a 
complete history of the patient and examine the condi- 
tions under which the experiment was tried. Any doctor 
who is a scientist would follow such a procedure in 
handling a medical case. If a doctor announced to the 
scientific world that he had a remedy for cancer, which 
at the present time is an incurable physical disease, just 
as poverty is a social one, the scientists would give a 
hearing to his theory, seek a fair test for it, keep their 
minds open, and judge the efficacy of the remedy by the 
results produced. Communism, as a treatment, a cure for 
poverty, has never been put to the test on a scale and in 
circumstances which justify any positive judgment as to 
whether or not the plan is practical. As I have already 
written, the Russian Bolsheviki insist that if every one 
owns everything in common there can be no poverty. 



82 THE NEW WORLD 

They base this statement on their faith that communism 
will increase production, claiming that competition 
shackles production. According to their analysis the 
competitive system takes from the individual the induce- 
ment to work — communism would give him an incentive 
to work; it would be a stimulant; under it, men would 
work better and produce more. Russian Bolsheviki fur- 
ther declare that the present system is bound to provoke 
an increasing number of strikes and that strikes stop 
production, cause waste, increase poverty. There is no 
doubt that there could be no poverty in the socialistic 
state if communism succeeded in stimulating men to 
work harder, thus greatly increasing production, because 
there would be more to eat, more to wear, more to use, 
and as the distribution would be controlled by the state, 
all of the people would receive an equal share of the great 
abundance, all would have enough. For the sake of 
fairness I am conceding that the distribution program 
would be honestly and justly carried out, but a better 
distribution, a more equal and just division would mean 
nothing unless the first, the fundamental promise of Bol- 
shevism — greater production — is fulfilled. Any plan 
which decreases production causes a shortage of the 
things necessary to life. If the Bolsheviki are wrong 
in their belief that communism will increase production, 
then Bolshevism would make poverty general, universal, 
and instead of Bolshevism curing the cancer on the body 
of civilization, it would make the entire body of civili- 
zation a cancer. If the claims of Bolshevism are well 
founded, sound in common sense, capable of fulfillment, 



THE TEST 83 

communism would be the greatest blessing ever con- 
ferred upon humanity. On the other hand, if the Bol- 
sheviki are wrong, and communism took from them the 
inducement to work, then notwithstanding all the good 
intentions of the Bolsheviki, their communism would be 
the greatest scourge the world has known. This is the 
simple issue. If Bolshevism is the good thing its advo- 
cates say it is, it will bring the millennium, and every 
human being should favor it. But if impractical and 
unworkable, then it is a danger, the "Red" flag is its 
proper signal, and the world should avoid the danger sig- 
nal as an engineer charged with the safety of human life 
would avoid running by a red light on the track ahead. 

Going back to the doctor who honestly and sincerely 
believes he has a cure for cancer, let us consider what 
a scientist's world would demand before offering a judg- 
ment as to the value of his proposed cure. First, they 
would free their minds of all prejudice. They would be 
reasonable and patient as they would be thorough in 
examining the proposed remedy from every possible 
angle. They would analyze the formula, examine it in 
the light of experience. Why should we not follow the 
same sensible plan in considering Bolshevism? We 
shall get farther if we do. Why should some of us 
accept it without knowing what it is? Why should 
others condemn it without understanding? And 
why should both these groups get excited and irri- 
tatedj and add to the world's unrest? 

I purpose to follow the method of the scientist, as 



84 THE NEW WORLD 

nearly as possible, in examining Russia, the Patient; 
the world cancer, Poverty; the remedy, Bolshevism. 

First, a history of the patient. 

Second, the formula — the remedy. 

Third, the methods used in applying the remedy. 

Fourth, the history sheets showing the effect of the 
treatment upon the patient. 

Fifth, the condition of the patient after thirty months' 
treatment. 

SOCIALISM FROM PLATO TO MARX 

For nearly four hundred years Russia waited for 
morning. It was a terrible night. Brutal dreams tor- 
tured her. She writhed in despair. Time moved slowly. 
The clock ticked agonies. The air was thick with 
groans. Motherhood bore slaves. The cradle was a 
coffin. Feast days were celebrated by massacres. Czars 
from Ivan the Terrible, 1554, to Nicholas, the last of 
the Romanoffs, executed in 1918, used the bodies and 
souls of human beings as manure to fertilize the soil in 
which grew the rank weed of imperialism. History calls 
them emperors, truth labels them brutes, torturers, mur- 
derers. 

It was a lightless day, a hopeless night, for the Rus- 
sians, which began with the curses of Ivan and ended 
with the execution of Nicholas. During this night of 
three hundred and seventy-five years its people marched 
the treadmill. It was an endless tramp of feet. In the 
dark, great bodies swayed with weariness. Heavy 
shoulders bent forward. Strong legs marked time on 



THE TEST 85 

the treadmill steps. They kept time to the lash of the 
whip. It laid bare their backs, the backs of young and 
old, of women and children as well as men. Sweat 
formed into red froth as it mingled with their blood. 
They grew blind in the dungeon darkness. They stum- 
bled and halted, only to be called back to the monotony 
and drudgery of the tramp by the lash and the bludgeon. 
Their legs rose and fell — they marched, but never for- 
ward. It was left, right, left, right; tramp, tramp, and 
always on the treadmill steps in the hopeless dark. They 
mumbled prayers, but God couldn't hear; the curses of 
their masters drowned out their petitions. It was so 
dark in the treadmill that even God could not see, and 
so God forgot Russia. Forgotten, abandoned, they bent 
their weary backs toward the sod, the grave offered 
rest — it was kind. The only thing they owned was their 
pains. They lived a communism of suffering, a social- 
ism of slavery. 

The revolution of 1917 battered down the door of the 
treadmill. Seized with wild joy, they madly rushed to- 
ward the light. In the open, they saw the sky and sun, 
they were bewildered. In the fury of delight they rushed 
on. It isn't strange, that eyes blinded by ages of dark- 
ness blinked in the light. It isn't surprising that they 
tried to reach the center of the sun. Suffering in the 
light is different from suffering in the blackness the 
Russians had known. 

When their eyes became accustomed to the light they 
looked around to see where they were — to learn what had 
been happening in the world. 



86 THE NEW WORLD 

They had a task before them, the building of a free 
man's house, a house in the light, a house without a dark 
corner. They knew little about freedom, except that 
they wanted it with all their hearts. Their experience 
had been with slavery. They knew little about the prac- 
tical work of building a house in which freedom might 
live pure and secure. 

They saw civilization and they gasped when they 
saw that its body was covered with a malignant sore. It 
was an ugly, festering, running sore. They learned its 
name. It was written in the oldest of chronicles — it was 
the incurable, horrible leprosy of the world — poverty. 
They were told that it was the cause of the thing religion 
labels sin, that poverty had transformed Christ images, 
struck in clay, into hunch-backed souls, that the sickening 
matter running from sores caused the red blotches on 
the world's body known as red-light districts ; that other 
effects were the swollen blackish blue boils, the tenements 
and slums. Even the darkness of the treadmill had not 
produced worse. 

They learned about poverty. They read its autobiog- 
raphy. They read how it had robbed children of their 
childhood, erased faith from the minds of men, and 
mobilized women in a dreadful traffic. They learned 
that much of the thing called crime was poverty's work, 
that normality and morality are matters of education. 
That to be good requires knowledge of right and wrong. 
They read that statesmen called poverty the problem. 
Reformers called it a curse and became unpopular be- 
cause of their persistent attacks upon it. In the verdict 



THE TEST 87 

of a thoughtless world those who fought poverty were 
called long-haired men and short-haired women. People 
did not stop to remember that these long-haired men and 
short-haired women gave of their time and strength to 
the poor. These who were maligned for following in the 
footsteps of the first Lover of the Poor were those who 
cried out against the tenements, demanding for human 
beings the sunshine and air stockmen give their cattle. 
These unpopular ones were the same who brought ice to 
keep milk cool in the hot summer for the children of the 
slums; these were the crusaders against child labor, the 
protestants against working so many hours each day that 
exhaustion marred and marked the physical and mental 
strength of the children they bore. 

So it was that these redeemed, freed people of Russia 
learned of the cancer and feared it as much as the thing 
they had escaped. 

They beheld old-school politicians acting as doctors to 
sick civilization. These doctors, miscalled statesmen, 
were agreed as to the cause of the disease and that the 
symptoms threatened death. Many prescriptions had 
been given the patient, but none checked the disease. 
These prescriptions had been various formulas of gov- 
ernment, the constitutional monarchy, a democracy, a 
republic. The giving of these various treatments failed 
to effect a cure. Civilization continued to suffer. At 
times pain became unendurable and the doctors gave 
local anesthetics. These were the laws, included under 
the general designation "Social Welfare Legislation." 
They made the patient temporarily more easy. They 



88 THE NEW WORLD 

allayed pain that might otherwise have produced convul- 
sions REVOLUTION. 

And then these Russian people, studying what to them 
was a new world, discovered that many of these political 
doctors were quacks, unreliable and dishonest, and more 
interested in their own fortunes than the fate of the 
patient. Time and thought were taken up in holding 
their johs, rather than in doing the work. That the 
schools of political medicine, called political parties, 
responsible for these doctors, were diploma mills, graft 
rings and that these physicians were suspected of being 
interested in keeping the patient sick and of not making 
an honest effort to cure. It was rumored also that there 
are people in the world who make profit out of poverty; 
that special privilege is the powerful profiteer of our day. 

Away back in the fourth century before Christ, Plato 
had written about another remedy. Its object was to 
cure poverty. The Russians, seeing that the remedies in 
common use had failed, turned their thoughts to this old 
theory, this untried remedy. It was an experiment, to be 
be sure, but, "nothing ventured, nothing gained." Dis- 
ciples of Marx argued that it could not more completely 
fail than the remedies at present in use. There was an 
appeal in the plan, and those who advocated it possessed 
an enthusiasm that was contagious. The formula 
abounded in promises. 

And with the revolution came into Russia one who 
had been exiled. For many years he had been a teacher 
and preacher of the untried remedy. Russians saw in 
him a savior. He came with a burning messge. His 



THE TEST 89 

followers possessed the fervor of crusaders. He preached 
communism, saying that it alone could make freedom 
secure; that it would make them possessors of their 
country, owners of their homes. The words were wel- 
come. The people listened and believed. They were as 
little children, so great was their faith. To them a 
promise was a truth fulfilled; the word, a living cove- 
nant. The promise was that the peasants would have 
their own lands and workingmen would be their own 
bosses. It was the word for which they had waited, 
the realization of the dreams they had dreamed. The 
prophet had come. The new day was before them. 
They rejoiced and cried, "Long live the Messiah!" 
The man was Lenin, the message, communism. 



CHAPTER VIII 

RUSSIA'S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND— FROM RURIK 
TO NICHOLAS 

Prior to the Eighteenth century what is now called 
European Russia was generally known as Muscovy, tak- 
ing its name from its ancient capital, Moscow. It was 
not until the expansion of the empire in the Nineteenth 
century that the word Russia was used to designate the 
European and Asiatic dominions of the Czars. The 
word Russia probably comes from the Slavonic word 
"Rus" derived from Ruotsi, a Finnish name applied to 
the Swedes, meaning "rowers" or "seafarers." 

The history of Russia begins with a legend. Nestor 
of Kiev, an old monkish chronicler, tells the story. In 
the nineteenth century Slavs and Finns lived in a tribal 
state in the forest region near Lake Ilmen, between Lake 
Ladoga and the upper waters of the Dnieper. Bands of 
military adventurers from the land of Rus, which is sup- 
posed to have been part of Sweden, invaded the country 
and exacted tribute from the people. In the year of 859 
the tribes rebelled and drove out the Northmen. It was 
Russia's first revolution. The freed Russians set to fight- 
ing among themselves — civil war ravaged the land. Then 
as to-day order was apparently the first essential to peace 

90 



RUSSIA'S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 91 

and prosperity. After three years of chaos, these, the 
first Russians confessed their inability to manage their 
own affairs and they sent a mission to Rus to invite their 
old masters to return and rule over them. 

According to the legend, three brothers, Princes of 
Rus, Rurik, Sineus and Truvor accepted and founded 
a dynasty from which many of the princes of the present 
day claim descent. 

Prince Rurik built his castle on the banks of the river 
Volkhov, which with Lake Ilmen formed part of the 
great waterway connecting the Baltic and Black Seas. It 
was over this route that the giant blond Norsemen who 
composed the famous Varangian bodyguard of the By- 
zantine emperors traveled from Scandinavia to Constan- 
tinople. Russia's first capital was Novgorod. 

These new rulers from the land of Rus brought with 
them the spirit of adventure and the passion for con- 
quest. Not content with ruling the tribes who had invited 
them, they set out to conquer the surrounding country. 
Before 200 years had passed they had successfully in- 
vaded Byzantine territory, established themselves as 
chiefs, threatened Constantinople with a fleet, secured as 
a consort a sister of the Byzantine emperor for one of 
their princes, Vladimir I, adopted Christianity for them- 
selves and their subjects, held in check the nomadic 
hordes of the steppe and formed matrimonial alliances 
with the reigning families of Poland, Hungary, Norway 
and France. They became the greatest power in East- 
ern Europe. 

They possessed an insatiable appetite for conquest, 



92 THE NEW WORLD 

but lacked the power to organize the territory they con- 
quered. Their genius was entirely military. They had 
little administrative ability. The political future of the 
new state was destroyed when the princes of the Rurik 
dynasty divided the state into a number of independent 
principalities. For a time these separate states were 
weakly and loosely held together by the patriarchal au- 
thority of the senior member of the reigning family, the 
Grand Prince who ruled in Kiev. Family quarrels were 
frequent and finally all alliance between the independent 
states was destroyed. These princes were strong men. 
They wanted individual power. The authority of the 
Grand Prince in Kiev stood in the way of their ambi- 
tions. With the death of Yaroslav the Great in 1054 
family feuds multiplied and the complete disintegration 
of the nation began. During the next 170 years, from 
1054 to 1224, Russia was split into over sixty principali- 
ties. Disputes over the question of succession led to 
eighty-three civil wars. 

During these interminable struggles between rival 
princes, Kiev, which had been so long the residence of 
the Grand Prince, was repeatedly taken by storm and 
ruthlessly pillaged. Finally the whole valley of the 
Dneiper fell a prey to the marching tribes of the steppe. 
Russian colonization and political influence retreated 
northward, and from that time the continuous stream of 
Russian history is found in the land where the Vikings 
first settled and in the adjacent basin of the upper Volga. 
Here new principalities were founded, some of them no 
longer acknowledging allegiance to Kiev. Thus appeared 



RUSSIA'S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 93 

the Grand Princes of Suzdal, of Tver, of Ryazan and 
of Moscow — all irreconcilable rivals. The more ambi- 
tious and powerful among them aspired, not to succeed 
but to subdue the others and seize their territory. 

The greatest of these principalities was Novgorod. 
Since the days when Rurik first chose it as his head- 
quarters the little capital on the Volkhov had grown 
into a great commercial city and brought under subjec- 
tion a vast expanse of territory stretching from the Bal- 
kan to the Ural Mountains. Unlike the other Russian 
principalities it had a democratic rather than a monarch- 
ical form of government. The Republic of Novgorod 
was the first and only flicker of freedom in the long 
night of Russia, and it glowed but for a short moment. 

Novgorod had a prince, but he was engaged by formal 
contract. He was merely the commander of the troops. 
All political power remained in the hands of the civil 
officials. The people had set up a popular assembly 
which met in the market place. It was called into 
session by the tolling of the great bell. The maxim of 
the state was: "If the prince is bad, into the mud with 
him." 

Affairs in Moscow were different. There the supreme 
law was the whim of the autocrat. The people were 
slaves. They had no voice in the government. Demo- 
cratic Novgorod and autocratic Moscow became bitter 
rivals. The future of Russia' was in the balance. The 
issue was light or darkness, day or night, freedom or 
slavery for the future Russians. It is the crossroads in 
Russian history. Had Novgorod triumphed in the thir- 



94 THE NEW WORLD 

teenth century, the world might not have the problem of 
Bolshevism to-day. Russians would have escaped the 
political mines and dungeons of Siberia which for seven 
centuries have been their birth destiny. But in the turn 
of the balance Moscow and autocracy triumphed. The 
long Russian night came on. 

The Tartar yoke came. The "Golden Horde" beat 
Russia down. The invading conquerers built their cap- 
ital at Sari on the lower Volga. The Mongols merci- 
lessly pillaged and robbed their Russian captives. Tax- 
gatherers armed with bludgeons, whips and swords 
scoured the country and kept the people's backs bent in 
unremitting toil. The Grand Khan, the chief of the 
Mongol Empire, lived with the "Great Horde" in the 
valley of the Amur in Siberia. From time to time he 
commanded the rulers of the Russian states to pay him 
homage and bring tribute to his court. To him the Rus- 
sian princes were despised puppets. The journeys of 
these subject Russian princes to Siberia, blazed the trail 
and opened the cruel route which was later destined to 
play such an important part in the horrors of Russian 
history. 

The first wayfarers on this road were Russian auto- 
crats — princes, the degenerate and corrupt descendants 
of Rurik. The prince made his last will and testament 
and arranged his earthly affairs before he started on the 
cold black trail ; then, as later, few who took the Siberia 
road ever returned. 

The princes of Moscow sought favor at the Mongol 
Court by bribery and sycophancy. They more than car- 



RUSSIA'S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 95 

ried out the orders of the Grand Khan ; they outraged and 
robbed their own subjects to satisfy the Mongol Court. 
In return for the betrayal of their own people, these 
princes of Moscow were made the principal collectors 
and slave drivers by the Tartar Rulers. The princes of 
Moscow grew strong while the rest of Russia grew weak. 
This is the taint in the blood of the Czardom of Mus- 
covy. Out of this line, came the Czars. These depraved 
Russian princes of Moscow abided their time. At •the 
battle of Kulikovo in 1380, the Mongol yoke was broken. 
Three Czars — Ivan 3rd, known as "The Great," his 
son Basil and his grandson Ivan 4th, called "The Ter- 
rible," — whose united reigns covered a period of 122 
years, from 1462 to 1584, forged the shackles and fast- 
ened them on the people of Russia, shackles which 
clanked until the end of the last of the Romanoffs, 
Nicholas. 

THE CRIME AGAINST THE PEASANTS 

In talking with people about Russia, I have discovered 
that few in America have more than a faint, uncertain, 
vague idea of the country. Czar Nicholas, the last of 
the autocrats, was monarch of 8,660,000 square miles, 
one-sixth of the entire land surface of the earth. The 
great Russian empire is spread over part of two conti- 
nents, Europe and Asia. It is almost entirely confined 
to the cold and temperate zones. 

Three seas bound it on the north — White, Barents and 
Kara, of the Arctic; the seas of Bering, Okhotsh and 
Japan of the northern Pacific bound it on the east. The 



96 THE NEW WORLD 

Baltic sea, the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland limit it on 
the northwest; two sinuous lines of land front separate 
it respectively from Sweden and Norway on the north- 
west, and from Prussia, Austria and Roumania on the 
west. On the south and east the frontier has changed 
frequently, according to the expansion and contraction 
of the empire under the pressure of political exigency 
and expediency. The Black Sea is the principal demar- 
cating feature on the south of European Russia. On the 
west side of that sea the south frontier touches the 
Danube for some 120 miles ; on the east side of the same 
sea it zigzags from the Black Sea to the Caspian, utilizing 
the river Aras for part of the distance. As the Caspian 
is virtually a Russian sea, Persia may be said to form 
the next link in the southern boundary of the Russian 
empire, followed by Afghanistan. On the Pamirs, Rus- 
sia has since 1885 been co-terminous with British India, 
but the boundary then swings away north round Chinese 
Turkestan, and the north side of Mongolia, and since 
1905 it has skirted the north of Manchuria, being separ- 
ated from it by the river Amur. 

The total length of the frontier line of the Russian 
empire by land is 2,800 miles in Europe and nearly 
10,000 miles in Asia, and by sea, over 11,000 miles in 
Europe and between 19,000 and 20,000 miles in Asia — a 
frontier of 68,000 miles. 

The population of the Empire in 191 5 was estimated 
at 182,182,600. This population was distributed as fol- 
lows: In European Russia, 131,796,800; in Poland, 
12,125,000; in Caucasus, 13,125,000; in Siberia, 12,337,- 



RUSSIA'S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 97 

900; in the Central Asian Provinces, 11,125,000; in 
Finland, 3,125,000. 

Three different branches can be distinguished among 
the Russians, from the dawn of their history: — The 
Great Russians, the Little Russians and the White Rus- 
sians. The primary distinctions between these branches 
of the Russian people have been increased during the last 
nine centuries, by their contact with different nationali- 
ties — the Great Russians absorbing a Finnish element ; 
the Little Russians undergoing an admixture of Turkish 
blood and the White Russians submitting to Lithuanian 
influence. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the Russians have ab- 
sorbed and assimilated in the course of their history, 
numerous mixed tribes, mostly Mongolian and Turkic, 
the Slav type has been maintained with remarkable per- 
sistency. Slav skulls over ten centuries old, exhibit the 
same anthropological features as those which character- 
ize the Slavs of the present date. 

Class distinction in Russia has always been real. It 
bolted the door of opportunity against the great mass of 
the people. They were doomed to stay in their class; 
to remain a part of the struggling sweaty mass at the 
very bottom of life. 81.6 per cent of all the Russians 
were peasants; 6.1 per cent military and 1 per cent 
nobility. 

Nearly 150,000,000 Russians are peasants. The land 
is their problem — it means home to them — work, life. 
They are born on it, they are buried in it. One hope 
alone has kept the Russian heart beating during the ages 



9 8 



THE NEW WORLD 



of tyranny and suffering, and that, the hope that the day 
would come when he would own his own land. The 
Russian peasant has been a stranger in his own country. 
The man who tills the soil and lives on the land and yet 
never owns an acre of it, is a foreigner, even though his 
forebearers may have been natives' of the country for cen- 
turies. The Russian peasants have felt this exclusion, 
for of all the people of r the world, none are more home 
loving than the' Russians. The land question is the 
hearth question in Russia; land ownership is the meas- 
ure of freedom. 

Some idea of the land crime in Russia is told in the 
startling figures showing the actual distribution of arable 
land, forests and meadows in European Russia. 

The following table is only one count in the indict- 
ment : 





Acres 


Percentage 


State and Imperial family 

Peasants 

Private owners, towns, etc 

Unfit for cultivation 


400,816,000 

446,657,000 

245,835,000 

66,056,000 


35 ' 
38K 
21 

5^ 






1,159,364,000 


100 



Prior to the Revolution according to official docu- 
ments, the peasants were chained to hopeless poverty. 
Hunger was a fixed part of their lot. The official figures 
tell the story: 

In the twelve central divisions of Russia, the peasant 
grows on the average, sufficient rye for bread for only two 



RUSSIA'S HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 99 

hundred days in the year ; often for only one hundred to one 
hundred eighty days. 

Twenty-five per cent of the peasants received allot- 
ments of only 2.9 acres per male; half of the people re- 
ceived less than. 8.5 acres. The tragedy of land distribu- 
tion is understood at once, when we realize that forty-two 
acres are necessary to feed a family, but this inequitable 
land distribution served a purpose, it compelled the pea- 
sants to rent land from the landlord. The peasant's 
necessity was the landlord's opportunity, and he exacted 
the last drop of sweat. The rent made the tenant 
peasant, the landlord's helpless slave. His back was 
kept bent by redemption and tax burdens, which often 
reached from 185 per cent to 250 per cent of the value 
of the peasant's allotment. In addition, the taxes for re- 
cruiting, for the churches, roads and local administration 
were levied from the peasants, who, in consequence, got 
much deeper into debt every year. The Russian peasant 
found himself in a quicksand; the harder he worked, 
the deeper into debt he went. In the years prior 
to the Revolution, increasing arrears drove one- 
fifth of the peasants from their homes ; every year, more 
than fifty per cent of the adult males (in some districts 
seventy-five per cent of the men and one-third of the 
women) were forced from their homes and compelled to 
wander through Russia in search of work. 

In 1 86 1 a sham law was passed, which pretended to 
emancipate the serfs ; even under the best landlords, the 
conditions of the peasants continued to be brutal. It is 
true, that household servants attached to the personal 



ioo THE NEW WORLD 

service of masters, were released. Most of these joined 
the town proletariat. It was only as late as 1904, that 
the landlords were forbidden by law, to inflict corporal 
punishment on the peasants. Even this law was openly 
violated and the practice of treating human beings as 
brutes treat tired domestic animals, continued. The 
peasant was a chattel, — the cheapest farm fixture, there 
were plenty of peasants. Notwithstanding the hardships 
and the hunger in Russia, the population continued to 
increase. 

The family tie has been strong in Russia and the fami- 
lies have been banded together into clans, so closely knit 
has been the tie to the tribe that Russians do not immi- 
grate as individuals, they migrate in whole villages. The 
village community is the heart of Russia. The Rural 
Commune, called the Mir, consisted of all the peasant 
householders of the village. They met and elected a head 
man and collector of local taxes. The allotments of 
arable land given to the peasants, were not given to them 
as individuals, but the title was given over to the Mir, 
which was made responsible for the payment of the 
allotments. It was a sort of land communism. The Mir 
was a mortgaged community; the peasant's blood and 
soul, the security. The redemption charge was not calcu- 
lated on the value of the land, but was considered as 
payment for the loss by the landlords of the compulsory 
labor of the serfs. The Mir was a clearing house for 
the peasant's troubles, a socialism of sorrows; a touch 
of self-government in sufferings ; it provided a means of 
cooperation in burden bearing. 



CHAPTER IX 
RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 

Less than ten per cent of the people of Russia live 
"permanently" in cities or towns. I write the word "per- 
manently" to call attention to the fact that large numbers 
of peasants and villagers come to the cities and towns to 
work for a part of the year in the industries. They 
retain their peasant status and their domiciles in the vil- 
lages. In 1 910 there were only forty cities in the Rus- 
sian empire with a population of from 50,000 to 100,000, 
only four cities with a population of over 100,000. 

Poverty forced upon the Russian people the coopera- 
tive spirit. In a great, long strain people can stand up 
together better than alone. It is the feeling of consola- 
tion in companionship. It is a principle of mass psychol- 
ogy that a group of men will dare to do a thing, to 
stand a suffering or a danger that no individual in the 
crowd would undertake alone. One of the oldest insti- 
tutions of Russian life is the artel. The artel very much 
resembles the cooperative society of western Europe, 
with this difference, that the cooperative society in Eu- 
rope as in America is the outgrowth of an economic 
trend. ♦ In Russia it was the unpremeditated result of 
necessity. It is the difference between one who is hungry 

1 01 



102 THE NEW WORLD 

because he is dieting and one who is starving because he 
is without food. 

The workers of Russia have suffered the same slavery 
the peasants have endured. The maximum wage has 
been a starvation wage. So when the working men from 
a province come to a city to work in the textile indus- 
tries or as carpenters, masons, etc., they at once unite 
in groups of from ten to fifty persons, rent a house, 
keep a common table, elect an elder of the artel, to whom 
each one pays his share of the expense. All over Russia 
one finds the artel — in the cities, in the lumber camps, 
even in the prisons. When a building is to be put up an 
artel is organized. When a railroad is being built an 
artel is formed. In some instances the artel resembles a 
labor union, in that the arrangement of the terms of 
employment is made by a delegate or committee appointed 
by the artel. 

Village life is primitive. The villagers live out of the 
world. The villages are very small, particularly in the 
extreme north. The houses are generally cheap wooden 
shanties. Owing to the great danger of fire, the villages 
generally cover a large area of ground. The houses are 
scattered and straggling. The conveniences found even 
in the American tenements are unknown. There is no 
chance for cleanliness. They live and sleep in crowded, 
smoky, unfinished houses. Furniture — they haven't even 
what the poorest farm tenant in America would call fur- 
nishings. A board for a table, a shakedown for a bed. 

Russia's industrial life has always been out of balance 
with her agricultural life. Notwithstanding her riches 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 103 

in raw material and her great possibilities for a success- 
ful industrial life, Russia has continued to be a nation 
with eighty-one per cent farmers, seven or eight per cent 
permanently engaged in industry, and three or four per 
cent of peasants who devoted part of the time to work 
in the industries. It has been said repeatedly that the 
imperial Russian government from the time of Peter the 
Great has been unceasing in its efforts for the creation 
and development of home manufactures. All of the evi- 
dence I have examined refutes this statement. There 
never has been any security to the worker in Russia. 
The only protection he has had, has been his interest 
in the family allotment. He could go back there and be 
hungry: in the city there was danger of actual starvation. 

The Czars put every obstacle in the way of education 
and of course this prevented the growth of industry. 

In 1902 the principal industries in. Russia, represent- 
ing all factories throughout the empire, of which the 
annual production was valued at more than $1,000, were 
textiles, food products, animal products, wood, paper, 
chemical products, ceramics, mining, metal goods and 
miscellaneous. The combined number of those employed 
totaled only 2,259,773. 

This dwarfed, stunted, paralyzed side of Russia — its 
industrial side — has a direct bearing upon conditions in 
Russia to-day and is an important part of the problem of 
the Bolshevist government. 

A nation to be economically normal must have balanced 
agricultural, manufacturing and commercial sides. If 
these three departments of activity are not proportion- 



104 THE NEW WORLD 

ately developed the nation is economically a cripple. 
Russia has been and is in this sense an economic crip- 
ple. Her body is great and powerful ; the physical con- 
stitution is strong. One arm, agriculture, is overdevel- 
oped, and its overdevelopment has been at the sacrifice 
of the other arm. A great German economist, List, 
wrote : 

A nation cannot promote and further its civilization, its 
prosperity and its social progress equally as well by ex- 
changing agricultural products for manufactured goods as 
by establishing a manufacturing power of its own. A merely 
agricultural nation can never develop to any extent a home 
or a foreign commerce, with inland means of transport and 
foreign navigation, increase its population in due propor- 
tion to their well-being, or make notable progress in its 
moral, intellectual, social and political development; it will 
never acquire important political power or be placed in a 
position to influence the cultivation and progress of less 
advanced nations and to form colonies of its own. A mere 
agricultural state is infinitely less powerful than an agricul- 
tural-manufacturing state. The former is always econom- 
ically and politically dependent on those foreign nations 
which take from it agriculture in exchange for manufactured 
goods. It cannot determine how much it will produce, it 
must wait and see how much others will buy from it. The 
agricultural-manufacturing states on the contrary produce 
for themselves large quantities of raw materials and provi- 
sions and supply merely the deficiency from importation. The 
purely agricultural nations are thus dependent for the power 
of effecting sales on the chances of a more or less bountiful 
harvest in the agricultural-manufacturing nations. They 
have, moreover, to compete in their sales with other purely 
agricultural nations, whereby the power of sale in itself is 
uncertain; they are exposed to the danger of ruin in their 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 105, 

trading with agricultural-manufacturing nations by war or 
new tariffs, whereby they suffer the double disadvantage of 
finding no buyers for their surplus agricultural products and 
of failing to obtain supplies of the manufactured goods they 
require. An agricultural nation is a man with one arm who 
makes use of an arm belonging to another person but cannot, 
of course, be sure of having it always available. An agri- 
cultural-manufacturing nation is a man who has two good 
arms of his own at his disposal. 



POLAND CITED AS AN EXAMPLE 

List further points out that the relative cultivation of 
the agricultural and manufacturing arms of a country- 
possessed of an ample and fertile territory will give that 
country a population twice to three times as large as it 
could secure by the development of the agricultural arm 
alone, and maintain this vastly increased population in a 
much higher degree of comfort. Surplus agricultural 
produce is not necessarily capital in an agricultural coun- 
try. Countries which produce such a surplus and remain 
dependent upon manufacturing countries are often 
obliged to purchase these manufactured goods at an en- 
hanced price. He points to Poland as an example. She 
exported the fruits of her soil to obtain the goods which 
she could have manufactured from it. As a consequence 
she fell like a house of cards when organized nations 
attacked her. List considers that had Poland developed 
her manufacturing arm, besides retaining her national 
independence she would have exceeded any other Euro- 
pean country in prosperity. To use List's words : 



106 THE NEW WORLD 

Go to fallen Poland and ask its hapless people now 
whether it is advisable for a nation to buy the fabrics of a 
foreign country so long as its native manufacturers are not 
sufficiently strengthened to be able to compete in price and 
quality with the foreigners. 

Bolshevism set out to socialize political, agricultural 
and industrial Russia, and as I expect to examine the 
effects of communism in each of these departments of 
Russian life I have set down some historical and econ- 
omical truths which must be kept in mind when examin- 
ing the Lenin panacea. 

RUSSIA'S GRAVE MORAL ERROR 

An examination of Russia, the patient, just before the 
treatment was started, reveals several findings which are 
necessary to complete the history and physical examina- 
tion. 

Russia was seventy-eight per cent illiterate. This means 
that nearly four-fifths of the people in Russia could not 
read or write. It does not mean that they could not 
think. There is as great a difference between illiteracy 
and intelligence as there is between illiteracy and igno- 
rance. I have met many Russian peasants who could 
neither read nor write but who had good native minds, 
genuine power of reasoning — home-spun thinkers. The 
Russian head had not been trained, but it was not empty, 

The autocratic government was the principal conspi- 
rator against education. The autocrats knew that igno- 
rance is the greatest insurance against uprisings, the best 
sedative to keep the slave asleep. The Church in Rus- 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 107 

sia, the Orthodox Church, was used to keep the light; 
from the people. The Czar was the "Little Father*," the 
divine agent of God on earth, and the "Unholy Synod" 
of the Russian Church bowed, not before the Christ, but 
bent low before the Czar. They betrayed Christ, even 
as they betrayed the sons and daughters of men, the 
Russian peasants and toilers. 

The people of Russia held firmly to their faith in 
God. The rest and ease their faith gave them was the 
only comfort they had. In moments of intense religious 
communion they were lifted out of themselves and for 
seconds forgot their burdens. These seconds were long 
spaces of relief, green spots in the endless desert waste 
of life. 

How Christ must have wept when he witnessed the 
"Holy Synod," the monkish rascals, with their sacri- 
legious icons, silencing the protests of souls, throttling 
the cry for freedom, by quoting in his name that those 
who suffered most here would be highest in heaven. A 
blasphemy, a corruption of the Lowly One, who used 
the word brotherhood to define equality, and the father- 
hood of God to express the justice that man owed to 
man. 

It was agreed by and between the "Unholy Synod" 
and the czars that the Russian worshipers of God must 
not know how to read or write His name. So it was that 
the orthodox church of Russia used religion to insult 
God and hold his creatures in bondage. It was the one 
churdi in the world that did not provide prayer books 
for its members. It was argued that if the people had 



io8 THE NEW WORLD 

prayer books they would learn to read, and if they read 
the Christ message on the Sabbath they might read 
more strange and dangerous books on the other days of 
the week. They might misuse their ability to read, and 
read messages like the American Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. The Orthodox churches painted the story of 
religion on its walls. They gave the people an education 
by the picture book method used for children before 
they have reached the kindergarten age. 

The birth certificate of Bolshevism was issued on 
November io, 191 7. 

The All-Russian Congress of the Councils of Working- 
men's, Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies decrees the form of 
the administration of the country, pending the meeting 
of the constituent assembly. The provisional workers 
and peasants' government is to be called the Council of 
People's Commissioners. The administration of the indi- 
vidual branches of state life is to be entrusted to boards, the 
composition of which is to secure the carrying out of the 
program proclaimed by the congress in close contact with 
the organizations of workers, sailors, soldiers, peasants and 
employees. The government authority belongs to the board 
and chairmen of these commissioners, that is, to the people's 
commissioners, and the right of systematizing them belongs 
to the All-Russian Congress of the Councils of Workmen's 
and Peasants' and Soldiers' Delegates and its Central Exe- 
cutive Committee. 

The government of the Czar was autocratic, not be- 
cause it misgoverned the people, it was autocratic be- 
cause the people did not have a voice in it. A govern- 
ment with good laws and honest administration which 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 109 

denies the people a voice in their own affairs is as auto- 
cratic as a government with vicious laws that denies 
the people the right to govern themselves. When the 
people exercise the right to govern themselves the ques- 
tion of good government is with them. If they have less 
than good government it is their own fault. The kind 
of government a free people have is of their own making. 

With the fall of the Kerensky regime the Bolshevist 
Party called a constitutional assembly and promised the 
Russian people liberty and the franchise. When this 
assembly met, the majority of the people's representa- 
tives were opposed to Bolshevism and the convention 
was marked for dissolution by its own begetters. Con- 
sequently a self-repudiating resolution was introduced, 
and when the assembly very naturally declined to pass 
it, the Bolshevist members withdrew and the assembly 
itself was forcibly dispersed by the "Red" Guards. 

It was the moral obligation of the Bolshevist Party to 
abide by the decision of the majority in the convention 
made up of delegates elected by the people. By striking 
down the People's Constitutional Assembly, the minority 
backed by force stripped the people of Russia of their 
right to formulate the government under which they were 
to live. This action on the part of the Bolshevist leaders 
is on a plane with the conduct of a small band of armed 
hoodlums entering a conference made up of unarmed, 
people and failing to have their way, pulling their revol- 
vers and breaking up the meeting. 

In the constitution and decrees of the Soviet govern- 
ment the Bolsheviki have tried to explain this breach o£ 



no THE NEW WORLD 

promise. All they have said in the defense of this be- 
trayal of the plain rights of the people by a criminal mis- 
use of power is that it was expedient to dissolve the 
Constitutional Convention because the continuance of the 
convention jeopardized the future of the Soviet. What 
right had Lenin and Trotzky to think and act for the 
people of Russia any more than the Czars had? In! 
speeches and writings Lenin and Trotzky have in a veiled 
way suggested that the peasants elected some members 
of the middle class, the bourgeoisie, to represent them in 
the convention instead of electing peasants. Why the 
question of class distinction, particularly from the men 
who once so earnestly condemned class distinctions ? The 
peasants were free agents and had the right to select 
whom they pleased to represent them in their Constitu- 
tional Convention. Their choice was their business, Rus- 
sia is their country. 

When Lenin and Trotzky complained about the Allies 
not leaving Russia to the Russians, do they not know that 
they have taken Russia from the Russians ? 

No man can become free unless he is given a chance 
to exercise independence. It is impossible to get muscle 
by letting another fellow use the dumb bells. The Rus- 
sians, — peasants and workers, — are human beings with an 
equal interest and an equal right in determining the form 
of government which they are called upon to obey, sup- 
port and defend. Years have come and gone since Lin- 
coln's day, and yet the thought of the world has not 
contributed anything to his basic definition of a free 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE in 

country — "a government of the people, for the people 
and by the people." 

Lenin issued his famous order. "Peasants, seize the 
land." This command was obeyed with great enthusi- 
asm. They forgot all about freedom and the constitu- 
tional convention. They understood what land meant, 
they had been taught its meaning by being denied its pos- 
session. They knew little about political phrases and 
framework. The order to seize the land tore from the 
serfs their heaviest chains. Lenin became their liberator 
— his was the voice that said "seize the land." It is 
probable the peasants would ultimately have done so 
without Lenin's instruction anyway. Disorder and un- 
rest had destroyed all respect for property rights. Prop- 
erty rights had a different meaning in Russia than else- 
where; property rights had meant the right to beat hu- 
man beings, to buy and sell serfs. Yet the fact that 
Lenin had uttered the words made them reverence and 
respect him, even as a man will be thankful to one who 
has told him to be careful of a hole in the sidewalk, not- 
withstanding the fact he has already seen it. Bolshevism 
started with great popularity. This was the secret of it. 

Of course the order to seize the land, all land, was 
based on the idea that the owners of land held title by 
and through their own wrongful conduct. God had made 
the ground and sunshine, and those who had taken title 
to it had only moved on and forced others off. This is 
the way the Bolsheviki reasoned, and from this point 
of view they were consistent. From the accepted view- 
point it was confiscation. It was dishonest. Many peo- 



112 THE NEW WORLD 

pie believe that acquiring property is frequently the result 
of industry and thrift; in some cases the title to prop- 
erty is based upon cunning, scheming and force. There 
are some who are without any private property because 
they prefer to squander their time, dissipate their energy 
and live shiftless lives. After all, it is a matter of opin- 
ion, and from the point of view of the Bolsheviki the 
order "Peasants, seize the land" may have been justified. 
; But when the order was given, the peasants seized it 
not for the community but to own it privately. On this 
point there can be no difference of opinion among hon- 
est, impartial, fair-minded men, and when the peasants 
seized the land to hold, use and own it as their private 
property they were guilty of taking title by the identical 
means used by others against whom they had complained 
and whom they had denounced as thieves. 

The Russian people have the power to think and they 
soon realized that they had acquired property by the very 
methods they had always condemned in others. Their 
natural selfishness may constrain them to keep this prop^ 
erty. The sufferings they have undergone may mitigate 
the offense, but one effect was inevitable, and that effect 
the most serious that could happen to a people on the 
threshold of a free future. I refer to the weakening 
of their moral nature, the making of a precedent justi- 
fying dishonesty. The ill effects of this act on Russia 
is observable in every subsequent symptom of the patient. 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 113 

THE VISION 

Karl Marx went to his grave with faith that commu- 
nism would come, but never for one moment did he 
think that backward Russia would be the scene of the 
first great experiment. It was almost the last place in 
the world the socialist would pick out as a place in which 
to try out the theory. Marx, no doubt, visioned his 
fatherland, Germany, as the country destined to be first 
to adopt the creation of his brain, the Communist Mani- 
festo, as the constitution of the Utopian state. 

Nor did Marx and his disciples think that socialism 
would come in the circumstances of the world in 191 7. 
Marx thought he saw causes at work which would force, 
socialism upon the world, but they were quite different 
causes and conditions from the ones which accompanied 
the hoisting of the "Red" flag over the Winter Palace 
in Petrograd. 

The prophets of the new dream had all said there 
would come a time when working men would become 
silent partners in production. They spoke of the age of 
the machine, the day when capitalism would reach the 
zenith of production. They told how it would come 
about, and they prophesied what would happen. 

They spoke and wrote of the genius of the inventor, 
how man's mind would create labor-saving machinery. 
That great machines would till and plow the ground and 
do more in a day than a hundred men could do in a 
week; ,that manufacturing would become a matter of 
pushing buttons; that mechanical power would do the 



ii4 THE NEW WORLD 

work; hands of steel would take the place of human 
hands; steam would take the place of muscle; that the 
world was going on to the day of intensified production ; 
that the time was not far distant when the work of the 
world would be done by a small number of men and a 
large number of efficient machines; that this would put 
man more and more at the mercy of the few who owned 
the machines; that the capitalist class would grow rich 
and powerful because of the great surplus of everything 
on hand, the great overproduction ; that capitalists would 
combine and confederate for their mutual protection and 
for the general exploitation of the workers. That these 
great powerful combinations would be greater and more 
powerful than the government itself; that they would 
make the law, defy the world, would be above the law. 
Political organizations would no longer be groups of men 
divided on lines of principle ; they would be but organiza- 
tions in the hands of the capitalists used to keep divided 
the great mass of struggling, protesting people at the 
bottom of the world ; they would feed political parties on 
corruption, keep them fighting each other and thus keep 
the people's house divided against itself. 

In this day they said it would not be necessary for 
capitalists to own men as slaves; that slavery would be 
universal, the machine the shackle. That the strike would 
be no longer a usable weapon ; that the surplus on hand 
would be so large that the powerful few could say to 
the weak many "strike and starve." 

That the biggest and greatest machine of all would 
be the perfectly, running, completely dominating machine 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 115 

of capitalism itself; that it would be an efficient, highly 
organized, finely functioning machine; that the workers 
of the world, growing more intelligent because of the 
spread of popular education, would see more clearly their 
rights and the danger to them of the power of the 
machine. 

But the prophets erred. It came suddenly, unexpect- 
edly. It came to the darkest part of the globe, where 
men and women were least fitted to try the experiment. 
This white light of idealism came to a people whose eyes 
were not accustomed to the soft yellow light of demo- 
cratic freedom. 

Three years of world war preceded its coming. The 
world's surplus was almost consumed. Exhaustion was 
showing itself everywhere. In Russia it was felt most. 

The Russian people were demoralized. They were 
stampeded by the war. Twelve million of them had been 
mobilized, taken from the fields, sent to the front, un- 
trained for the most part, unequipped, called upon to face 
the finest military machine the world has ever known, 
to stop Von Hindenburg's drives. The Russian men 
were put in the front trenches to fight; many of them 
without rifles were sent to death without a sporting 
chance to battle for life. The shells for the artillery 
didn't fit the guns, the powder wouldn't explode. To 
them it was not war — it was sacrifice, betrayal. In 
peace handicapped through poverty; in war they werq 
handcuffed to death. 

A single story that has gone through Russia indicates 
their plight. A staff colonel in the Russian army was mar- 



n6 THE NEW WORLD 

ried to a German wife. When the war broke out she 
was in Germany. Under the military code, because of 
his position, he was permitted to send her a telegram 
each day. One day the staff at great headquarters 
changed the plan of attack that had been adopted late the 
night before. The colonel had sent his daily message to 
his wife before the change in plan was made on this 
day. He sought to send another telegram. He asked 
a runner to take it. He gave too large a tip. Two 
telegrams in a day and an extravagant tip created suspi- 
cion. The runner took the telegram to headquarters. It 
was opened, deciphered and found to be a complete state- 
ment of the changed battle plan. Of course the colonel 
was shot, but every one in Russia will tell you that the 
treason of this one man sacrificed two hundred thousand 
lives. 

Russia's dead in the war totaled over two million. 
Over five million were wounded. These were workers 
and peasants. The story of their betrayal is the most 
immoral tale of the war. 

Russia was a sick, tired, hungry, black Russia in 
March, 191 7. The people were exhausted and demoral- 
ized. The undemobilized troops, broken in spirit, were 
trudging homeward. They looted and pillaged their own. 
Every one was robbing Russia. The spirit of law and 
order had left Russia's consciousness. Frenzy, panic, 
had seized Russia's brooding mind. 

One day in March, 191 7, grumbling, hungry people 
formed a procession and marched through the streets. 
They carried a slogan, "We want bread." Their bodies 



RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE 117 

and faces shouted the slogan. A regiment of Cossacks 
was sent to ride them down. It was the Czar's answer 
to the petition. It was not a new answer. Most petitions 
of the people had been answered in just this way. The 
Cossacks rode out, but they did not ride down the peo- 
ple; they did not shoot; they joined the parade. Another 
regiment was sent with the same result, and another. The 
thing had happened without as much blood as is often 
spilled in a street fight. A Czar, representative of a long 
line of unquestioned, unchallenged autocrats, was driven 
from the most powerful throne in the world. The 
smoothness and speed of the revolution startled the 
world, not less the Russians themselves. 

A people's provisional government was set up. Ker- 
ensky became its leader. A sick man, with inordinate 
vanity, possessing great power of speech, but no force of 
action, he lasted until November 7, 1917, when the mili- 
tary revolutionary committee seized the government, and 
the next day handed it over to the All-Russian Congress 
of the Councils of Workmen's, Soldiers' and Peasants' 
Deputies. 

Russia, the patient, was now ready for the test, the 
trial of the new prescription which it was promised 
would cure poverty — Communism. 



CHAPTER X 

THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP— THE BIRTH 
OF BOLSHEVISM 

The seed of socialism took growth in Russia in 1898. 
It had been planted many years before. The planting 
was done in secrecy, the soil waited for and welcomed 
the seed, intellectuals guarded it, the people prayed that 
it might grow, for with its growth they believed would 
come a plant — "Revolution" ; and the plant would bear a 
bloom — freedom. The planters and gardeners of the 
seed were called "social democrats." Back of them were 
the people. The imperial government of the Czars had 
organized a powerful race of ferrets known as the secret 
police. They burrowed the ground in search of the seed. 
Human bloodhounds were turned loose on the trail of 
the planters of the seed. 

In 1898, at Minsk, the Russian Social Democratic 
Labor Party was organized. A central committee was 
appointed and plans were carefully prepared for the 
overthrow of Czar Nicholas. The plotters talked little of 
socialism as an economic program. Less was said of 
the destruction of the right of private property. The 
idea of communism was in their minds, but it was latent, 
unprogrammed. The controlling thought of the party, 
its first purpose, was the overthrow of the hated govern- 

118 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 119 

ment. Differences of opinion as to the program that 
should follow a successful uprising were forgotten. Free- 
dom from the terrible yoke was the one thought in the 
minds of the leaders and of the people. All were agreed 
on the main object of the party, the deliverance of the 
Russian people. 

The bloodhounds found the trail. The daring men 
who made up the executive committee were run down 
and arrested. Their arrest gave life to the movement, 
growth to the party, it intensified the determination of 
the people. Propaganda and organization went on. The 
ferrets had not destroyed the seed. 

A second congress of the party was held at Brussels 
and London in July and August, 1903. It was at this 
convention the seed had sprouted, revolution taken root. 
At the congress of Brussels and London, questions of 
organization and methods arose. In the effort to prepare 
and perfect a program the congress divided. The differ- 
ence of opinion was fundamental, distinct and positive. 
The congress developed two leaders, both strong men. 
Lenin demanded a centralized body, a small, strong exe- 
cutive committee with full power to act, complete obedi- 
ence to the committee, an iron attitude toward dissent 
and dissenters. He argued for solidarity, and to get it 
he said it was necessary to blot out independent opinions, 
surrender personal ideas, grant the executive committee 
power without limit. He favored a democratic state, he 
said, but he urged the use of autocratic methods to get it. 
All agreed that force was necessary to bring about the 
downfall of the Czar, but Lenin and his followers insisted 



120 THE NEW WORLD 

that after this was accomplished the force and violence 
should continue until every vestige of capitalism was 
destroyed and he would brook no difference of opinion. 
He stood out against all compromise. His program was 
blood and force, not only for the revolution, but in the 
building of the new state that was to follow. His vanity 
of opinion strangled his democratic pretensions. His ar- 
rogance was supreme, his methods were inconsistent with 
the spirit of the party, but Lenin did not care. He be- 
lieved in driving — leading was too slow. If he was an 
idealist, he was also an autocrat. 

Martoff led the opposition to Lenin, insisting that 
democratic methods should prevail in the party which 
promised a democratic program. He fought for freedom 
within the party. He objected to stripping individual 
members of the party and subordinate branches of the 
organization of their right to a voice and a vote in the 
program. He was for peaceful political action after the 
revolution succeeded. He stood for communism, but 
urged that it must be a process of growth. Lenin insisted 
that such a policy would deliver the party to the bour- 
geoisie. Next to the Czar and the secret police, Lenin 
hated the bourgeoisie. They have been and are his ob- 
session. He gave to the word a broad meaning; he 
included in the bourgeoisie the man who was the owner 
of the small store, the little shop or the modest home. 
Every holder of private property, small or large, in the 
eyes of Lenin was an enemy of the new state, of the new 
freedom. The "petty" bourgeoisie were as dangerous as 
the nobles ; neither must be given time nor quarter ; both 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 121 

must be destroyed and at once. To quote the substance 
of Lenin's words, a democratic government in Russia, 
established by the proletariat with the aid of the bour- 
geoisie, would give the capitalists a stronger control than 
they had enjoyed under the Czar. On this rock he made 
his stand. 

The fight was to a finish. The clash divided the con- 
gress. The convention supported Lenin with his gospel 
of ruthless force. His war cry of pitiless persecution 
of the bourgeoisie carried the day. The majority of the 
convention followed him. The Russian word for majo- 
rity is "bolshinstvo." Lenin and his following became 
known in Russia as the "Bolsheviki." While the word 
"Bolshevik" means majority, it does not follow that the 
party bearing that name in Russia represents the ma- 
jority of the people. The name was given to the party 
because it represented a majority of the convention, a 
convention that in nowise represented the majority 
thought of the Russian people, except the one thought of 
deposing the Czar and destroying his regime. The fol- 
lowers of Martofr, who made up the fighting minority 
in the convention of 1903, were called "Mensheviks." 
The Russian word for minority is "menshinstvo." The 
fact that the opposition party to the Lenin methods is 
called Menshevik, or the minority party, does not mean 
that this party represents the views and political plans 
of a minority of the Russian people. 

In 1905 the Russian revolution broke and for about 
eighty days the workers of Moscow and Petrograd ruled 
in a reign of terror. The lash and sword of the Cos- 



122 THE NEW WORLD 

sacks finally beat them down. Lenin fled to Finland and 
then to Switzerland. Although the revolution of 1905 
failed, it left material of great value for a future revolu- 
tion. Prior to 1905 the labor unions were in an embry- 
onic state and existed clandestinely. The revolution 
strengthened these organizations and gave them con- 
sciousness. These labor union units became the nucleus 
of the organizations out of which came the Soviets. 
When the revolution of March, 191 7, succeeded, these 
unions were the only available organizations in Russia. 
The provisional government of Kerensky was in the be- 
ginning almost entirely composed of the organized work- 
men in the factories. These men were Social Demo- 
crats. Their labor organizations were used to stabilize 
the revolution, to support it, to hold it together, and to 
prevent the fall of the revolution through counter revolu- 
tions. Until May, 191 7, there was no such thing as a 
Soviet of the peasants. In that month, at Petrograd, a 
parliament of peasants was called. This convention 
brought about the merger of the peasants and soldiers 
and sailors and workers into the Soviets of soldiers', 
workers' and peasants' deputies. 

At this time no one in Russia dreamed of the Soviet 
as an organ of government. The Soviets were councils 
representing the three classes in the revolution, the sol- 
diers and sailors, the workers, and the peasants, and these 
councils acted as agents of their classes, watching the 
provisional government and trying to secure recognition 
and protection for their respective class interests. 
1 In 1 91 7 the Mensheviki, the party believing in political 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 123 

action rather than direct action, was the majority party 
of Russia. The Mensheviki believed in communism as 
the Bolsheviki did. The difference was that the Bolshe- 
viki insisted upon enforced communism, by bayonets, and 
at once, while the Mensheviki believed in thinking their 
way to the communistic state. Bolsheviki stood for the 
method of blood, the Mensheviki for the rule of reason. 

Lenin and Trotzky set to work to give the Soviets what 
they called a political consciousness. What they really 
did was to poison the minds of the workers of Russia 
with the thought that they could take advantage of the 
revolution and build a government with this small minor- 
ity of the population as dictators. They called it the 
dictatorship of the proletariat. It appealed to the 
radical, aggressive workmen; it promised them great 
advantage. They were shortsighted; they seized upon 
the thought and rallied around the phrase, "All power 
to the Soviets." Of course, the Soviets at this time 
did not represent one per cent of the people of Russia, 
and few stopped to think that a government imposing 
the will of one per cent of the people upon the other 
ninety-nine per cent of the people could not endure. "A 
house divided against itself must fall"; a country one 
per cent free and ninety-nine per cent slave cannot exist 
to-day. 

The Kerensky government promised the people of Rus- 
sia a constitutional convention, a constituent assembly. 
Lenin and Trotzky, then not in power, advocated a con- 
stituent assembly representative of all the people to frame 
the government of the new Russia. This promise was 



124 THE NEW WORLD 

the meeting place of all minds in Russia. Every one fa- 
vored a convention of delegates elected by the people and 
authorized by the people to form a government for the 
people. The constitutional assembly was to meet in Janu- 
ary, 1 91 8. In the meantime the one thought in Russia 
was to sustain the revolution, to prevent a return to power 
of the Czar and the nobles. Lenin and Trotzky suc- 
ceeded in seizing the revolutionary power, but they, 
too, were bound by their solemn promise to the people 
to hold the revolutionary power as a sacred trust and 
turn it over to the convention of the people. Before the 
constitutional assembly met Lenin and Trotzky came to 
power. 

When the constitutional convention met, the Bolshe- 
viki were a minority in the convention. The people had 
selected representatives, and the majority of these repre- 
sentatives were against Bolshevism, against communism 
by blood and force, but Lenin and Trotzky had the revo- 
lutionary power; they had the bayonets, the army and 
navy, the force of the revolution, which they held in trust 
for the people of Russia. Instead of turning this trust 
of power over to the elected representatives of the peo- 
ple, they used it to dissolve the constituent assembly. 
This was the first crime against popular rule in Russia. 
It was the beginning of a new dictatorship, a dictatorship 
called that of the proletariat, but in fact a dictatorship 
of Lenin and Trotzky supported by bayonets and cannon. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 125 

BOLSHEVISM IS THE LINCOLN FORMULA REVERSED 

On the tenth day of July, 1918, the Bolshevist govern- 
ment adopted a constitution. They named the new na- 
tion the "Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic." 
They hung out a flag, a red cloth, in the left corner of 
which (on top, near the pole) are in golden letters "R. S. 
F. S. R." The coat of arms of the new Russian govern- 
ment consists of a scarlet background on which a golden 
scythe and a hammer are placed (crosswise, handles 
downward) in sun rays and surrounded by a wreath, in- 
scribed: "Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic. 
Workers of the World, Unite. ,, 

The constitution of a country is its foundation. It 
must be solid if liberty is to be secure. The whole super- 
structure depends upon the foundation. Government is 
a house made of laws. There can be no peace, freedom 
and order without law. The people who live in the 
house, the great national family, have a vital interest in 
the house in which they live. It is their shelter, their se- 
curity. It is the right of every free man to have a say 
in the kind of house he is to live in, a voice in the making 
of the laws he is called upon to obey and maintain. The 
house of Freedom is one citizen's house as much as it 
is another's. Without equality there cannot be freedom. 
Every Russian had an equal right to determine the kind 
of government that should prevail in his land. The 
Bolshevist government began by denying the people the 
right to a voice in the form of government of their coun- 
try. A minority, without consulting the people, with- 



126 THE NEW WORLD 

out giving them a chance to express their views, forced 
upon the people a constitution. The Bolshevist govern- 
ment therefore was built on the false foundation of mi- 
nority rule. The principle that all governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the governed was 
sent to the scrap heap. 

The Russian constitution provides for a government 
of Soviets. The word soviet means council. The Soviet 
is a body of political officeholders who run the govern- 
ment. In our country, instead of calling these bodies 
Soviets, we call them township commissioners, village 
trustees, city councils or boards of aldermen, state legis- 
latures, congress. Under the Bolshevist Constitution all 
power is given to the Soviets. This is and has been the 
rallying cry of the members of the Soviets. The Soviets 
have the power to make laws as well as the power to en- 
force obedience to the laws. The legislative and execu- 
tive power is combined in the Soviet. 

The Bolshevist Constitution divides Russia into re- 
gions, provinces, counties, towns, villages, rural districts 
and local rural districts. For the purpose of comparison 
we can liken Russia to the United States, a province in 
Russia to a state in our Union, and so on down through' 
the list. We have no political division corresponding to 
the Russian region, a unit larger than an American state. 

The Russian citizen's liberty is measured by the voice 
he is given in selecting the men who are to make the laws 
he must obey. The constitution fixes his freedom. It 
says how far he may go and no farther. 

We have heard much about the "poor peasants." The 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 127 

constitution makes them paupers in liberty. Down at 
the bottom of government the farmer, the "poor peas- 
ant," is given the right to vote for delegates to the local 
rural Soviet. This little body has about the same power 
in shaping the policy of Russia and making the laws that 
affect life, liberty and property as the township commis- 
sioners have in the United States. Governed by office- 
holders the Russian citizen's vote is confined to purely 
local matters. When the "poor peasant" has cast this 
one lonesome and meaningless vote for a representative 
in the local rural Soviet he is through. 

The "poor peasant," having cast his vote for the local 
rural Soviet, leaves the task of government to the office- 
holders. The deputies elected to the local rural Soviet 
meet and elect the deputies to the next higher governing 
unit, the rural Soviet. Here is found the first governing 
body for which the "poor peasant" is denied a vote, but 
not the last. 

The next unit of government in Russia is the county. 
The people do not have a vote for the delegates to the 
county Soviets. These county commissioners are elected 
by the members of the city and village Soviets and the 
members of the rural Soviets. This is government one 
step removed from the people of the cities and two steps 
removed from the "poor peasants." 

The provincial Soviets are elected by the city Soviets 
and the rural Soviets. Again the people are without a 
direct voice in their own government. 

The constitution says: "The All-Russian Congress 
is the supreme power." This body in the government 



128 THE NEW WORLD 

of Russia takes the place of our congress, our president 
and the cabinet. It has the supreme legislative and exec- 
utive power. Do the people have a vote for these all- 
powerful congressmen? Certainly not. The All-Rus- 
sian congressmen are elected by the city Soviets and by 
the Soviets of the provinces, who were elected by the 
city and rural Soviets, the rural Soviets having been 
elected by the local rural Soviets, whose members were 
elected by the people. 

The All-Russian Congress is a very large body. The 
first Congress met in 1917. It numbered 1,200 delegates. 
The seventh Congress met in December, 19 19, and the 
membership has grown to over two thousand. It is a 
big, cumbersome body, unfit for deliberative purposes, 
a sort of mass meeting, a platform for the relief of those 
who have speeches burdening their chests. The Con- 
gress never sits for more than a week. It was never 
intended to be an organ of government. The constitu- 
tion tells the story. 

Section 28 reads: "The All-Russian Congress shall 
elect a central executive committee of not more than 200 
members. ,, This takes the government another step 
from the people. 

Section 30 says: "When the All-Russian Congress 
is not in session, the central executive committee is the 
supreme power of the republic. " But we have not 
reached the end of the journey from the people to the 
seat of power. 

Section 35 reads: "The central executive committee 
shall select a council of people's commissars who shall 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 129 

manage the affairs of the Russian Socialist Federal So- 
viet Republic/' 

Section 37 reads: "The council of people's commis- 
sars is intrusted with the general management of the 
affairs of the republic." 

Section 38: "For the accomplishment of this task 
the people's commissars shall issue decrees, resolutions, 
orders, and in general take all steps necessary for the 
proper and rapid conduct of government affairs." 

Section 40 : "The central executive committee has the 
right to revoke or suspend all orders and resolutions of 
the council of people's commissars." 

But a "note" to section 40 of the constitution reads : 
"Measures requiring immediate action may be enacted 
•directly by the council of people's commissars." 

The council of people's commissars numbers 17. The 
people had no voice in selecting the people's commissars ; 
they were not given a choice in picking the central exec- 
utive committee; they were not allowed to vote for the 
All-Russian congressmen ; in the rural districts the "poor 
peasants" were not even allowed to vote for the men 
who selected the men who in turn selected the congress- 
men. 

At the.head of the "Sacred Seventeen" is the chief of 
state, Lenin. At his right hand sits Trotzky, commissar 
of force in charge of the army and navy. When I think 
of the part the people play in this newest form of "free" 
government, and the distance they are kept from their 
country's affairs, I cannot help but see them through 
this constitution as though I were looking at them 



130 THE NEW WORLD 

through the wrong end of a pair of opera glasses. In 
truth it is a long way from the people to the throne of 
Lenin. The people make only the first and shortest step. 
There are five long and important steps between the 
"poor peasants" and the power, and three between the 
city voters and the real government of Russia. 

The Bolshevist government is a government of office- 
holders, for officeholders and by officeholders. It is 
Lincoln's formula reversed. I have heard it said that 
democratic government is a failure because political 
officeholders do not truly represent the people. There 
is some justification for the statement, but the people 
have a remedy; the system is not at fault. I cannot un- 
derstand the logic for the faith that a government which 
provides three or five additional sets of officeholders be- 
tween the people and the government will make things 
better. 

The title, People's Commissar, is full of meaning. It 
is obese with power. The title is copyrighted in the con- 
stitution. 

In December, 1918, Lenin addressed a letter to the 
American workingmen in which he said: 

Let incurable pedants, crammed full of bourgeois, demo- 
cratic and parliamentary prejudices, shake their heads 
gravely over our Soviet; let them deplore the fact that we 
have no direct elections. 

I suggest that Lenin put the Soviet plan before organ- 
ized labor in the United States, ask the union card car- 
riers of America to give up direct elections in their labor 



THE BEGINNING OF THE DICTATORSHIP 131 

unions, accept a scheme of government for their unions 
modeled after the Bolshevist plan, and see how many 
followers he will get. The rank and file of the labor 
movement guard jealously and zealously their right to a 
voice and vote for measures and men. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SOVIET MACHINE 

Lenin has frequently observed that representative gov- 
ernment is a failure. He has insisted that the demo- 
cratic form of government is debauched and destroyed 
by the political machine; that political corruption ve- 
toes the will of the people. If Lenin is right in this 
conclusion, then the Bolshevist government in Russia 
offers from three to five times as much chance for po- 
litical corruption as our own form of government. If 
it is dangerous for the American people to entrust their 
business to an agent whom they directly elect and who 
is directly responsible to them, how much more dan- 
gerous must it be to turn over the public business to 
seventeen men appointed by a central executive com- 
mittee, the members of which have been appointed by 
an All-Russian Congress, this All-Russian Congress being 
elected by Soviets for whom the people did not vote? 
Were we to apply this plan to our own govern- 
ment, our Congress would be elected by the state 
legislatures and the aldermen of the cities. A congress 
so elected would pick an executive committee of 200, 
and this committee would elect seventeen commissioners 

132 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 133 

to whom would be given the supreme power of the 
state, both legislative and executive. 

In the history of the ages two theories of government 
have been at war. One is that the majority shall rule — 1 
the other, that the minority shall rule. The people strug- 
gling for freedom have battled for the former ; the few 
seeking special privileges have fought for the latter. The 
first is democratic, the second autocratic. No compro- 
mise is possible; there is no middle ground. These two 
antagonistic ideas have nothing in common ; like parallel 
lines, they can never meet; in their nature they are sep- 
arate and apart. The government of the late Kaiser of 
Germany and the government of Nicholas of Russia, 
were founded on the idea that the minority shall rule. 
History shows that minority rule has always enslaved the 
majority. The rule of the minority over a majority 
means slavery for the many. It is human nature. The 
principle always works the same result. If it is a po- 
litical meeting and the minority runs it, the result is a 
machine and a boss. If it is a nation, there is a bureau- 
cracy and a dictator who derives his power not from 
the consent of the governed, but from the bayonets of 
the army. There may be room for honest differences 
of opinion between honest men on many questions, but 
there is not any room for difference of opinion among 
honest freemen on the proposition that minority rule is 
a menace. 

In Article III of the Bolshevist Constitution we find 
incontrovertible evidence that the government of Soviet 



i 3 4 THE NEW WORLD 

Russia is built on the tyrant's stone, minority rule. Sec- 
tion 25 reads: 

"The All-Russian Congress is composed of representa- 
tives of city Soviets in the ratio of one delegate for 
every 25,000 voters, and of representatives of the So- 
viets of the provinces in the ratio of one delegate for 
every 125,000 inhabitants." 

No explanation is given for basing the representation 
in congress from the cities on the number of voters, 
while the representation in congress from the provinces 
is based on the number of inhabitants. The words are 
not synonyms. A voter is an inhabitant of certain age 
and possessing certain qualifications. An inhabitant is 
any one who lives in the province, regardless of age or 
qualifications. If the word inhabitant is given the same 
meaning as the word voter, then it is apparent that the 
constitution discriminates unjustly against the "poor 
peasant." As they have had no general elections in 
Russia, it is impossible to give the official construction 
of these two words. If the word inhabitant means any 
man, woman or child living in the province, the discrimi- 
nation against the "poor peasants" is just as obvious, al- 
though it does not go to the same length. As an illus- 
tration, if we read this important provision of the con- 
stitution giving to the word inhabitant the same mean- 
ing as we give to the word voter, then we see that the 
voters of the city have one congressman for every 25,000, 
while the "poor peasants" have one congressman for 
every 125,000. If we construe the word voter to mean 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 135 

the qualified legal voter, and the word inhabitant to 
mean any human being living in the provinces, we learn 
that the people of the city have one congressman for 
every 25,000 voters, while the people of the provinces 
have one congressman for every 62,500 voters. I base 
my calculations on the fact that in the United States we 
estimate that there is one voter to every five of the popu- 
lation. This calculation is based upon male suffrage 
alone, with the voting age fixed at twenty-one years. In 
Russia both men and women have the suffrage, and the 
vote qualifying age is eighteen years. I, therefore, figure 
that there would be one voter for every two in popula- 
tion. There is no question about the discrimination 
against the "poor peasant" and the favoring of the city 
voter. It is only a question of how much. 

Lenin may be the idealist some people say he is, but 
this section of the constitution proves him to be a prac- 
tical machine politician in his methods. The provision 
was written to meet a situation. It has a purpose. Lenin 
has frequently written and spoken about the "poor peas- 
ants." He can be forgiven for overworking the phrase. 
The "poor peasants" constitute the bulk of the popula- 
tion of Russia. It is not bad politics, although it smacks 
of demagogy, to speak often and sympathetically of the 
"suffering poor," particularly when the "poor peasants" 
form the majority of one's constituency. Many success- 
ful politicians owe their offices to this appeal. Measured 
by his words, Lenin is the friend of the "poor peasants ;" 
by the constitution he is their enemy. 

As we have seen, the constitution specifically declares 



136 THE NEW WORLD 

that the supreme power of the government is vested in 
the All-Russian Congress. This is true only in theory, 
for we have read how the Ail-Russian Congress turns 
the supreme power over to a central executive commit- 
tee, which in turn surrenders the power to the seventeen 
People's Commissars. 

The discrimination against the "poor peasant" runs 
all through the constitution; the Bolsheviki are at least 
consistent. Paragraph "B" of section 53 of the con- 
stitution furnishes additional evidence of the conspiracy 
against the peasants. It reads : 

The provincial Soviets are composed of representatives of 
the city Soviets and the rural Soviets, one representative 
for 10,000 inhabitants of the rural districts, and one repre- 
sentative for 2,000 voters in the city. 

In the regional congresses it is the same, one repre- 
sentative for 25,000 inhabitants of the country, and one 
representative for 5,000 voters of the city. 

The governments of the nation, of the regions, of the 
provinces, are based on the disfranchisement of the 
"poor peasants." It is to wonder if there is any signifi- 
cance in the fact that the people of the city have one rep- 
resentative for a certain number of votes, while the 
people of the country have one representative for just 
five times the number. The ratio is always the same: 
For All-Russian congressmen it is 25,000 in the city, as 
against 125,000 in the country; in the regional congress 
it is 5,000 voters of the city as against 25,000 inhabitants 
of the country : in the provincial congresses it is one rep- 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 137 

resentative for 2,000 voters in the city, one representa- 
tive for 10,000 inhabitants from the rural districts. Why 
this five to one? I am wondering how Lenin hit upon 
the ratio of five to one ; is there any connection between 
this five-to-one discrimination against the "poor peas- 
ants" and the ratio of population in Russia between city 
dwellers and "poor peasants," which is about five to 
one ? It is not difficult to guess the reason for this action. 
Any American ward politician could furnish the expla- 
nation in a minute. All political experience proves that 
a political machine is best controlled, easiest organized 
in the cities. Political machines have never been popular 
in the country districts. The Soviet form of government 
is a political machine. The control of the machine is 
insured by disfranchising the "poor peasants." The men 
who designed the Bolshevist Constitution knew one thing 
about practical politics, and they knew this one thing 
thoroughly, and it is that cities are accessible to political 
control, amenable to political influence, ideal for the po- 
litical machine. 

The soldiers are generally stationed in cities. This 
gives them the power of city voters. They are not dis- 
criminated against, they are favored. Soldiers are not 
free agents in the same sense as civilians. Civilians have 
a freedom of thought and action that the army does not 
enjoy. The soldier is an employee of the government; 
he is under discipline; the People's Commissars fix his 
pay, determine the quantity and quality of his food, ar- 
range for the comforts of the barracks; the votes and 
the bayonets of the military sustain and support Lenin. 



138 THE NEW WORLD 

BOLSHEVISM* STRIPS RUSSIANS OF CITIZENSHIP 

The first great hypocrisy of the Bolshevist government 
was its pretense at establishing equality. Caste and class 
reminded the Russians of suffering, so the Soviet gov- 
ernment, through the People's Commissars, issuedthe fol- 
lowing decree: 

All designations, such as merchant, nobleman, burgher, 
peasant; titles, such as prince, count, etc., and distinctions of 
civil ranks, privy, state and other councilors, are abolished 
and one designation is established for all the population of 
Russia — Citizen of the Russian Republic. 



Article 4 of the constitution discloses the insincerity 
of the decree. It does more. It gives evidence of the 
great felony committed against the freedom of the Rus- 
sian people by Lenin, who decreed that : ( 1 ) All Russians 
who are eighteen years of age and who have acquired 
the means of living, through labor that* is productive and 
useful to society, and also persons engaged in housekeep- 
ing for the former; (2) soldiers of the army and navy; 
and (3) members of the former two classes, when imca- 
pacitated, shall have the right to hold office and to vote. 

But the constitution goes further ; it tells who shall not 
hold office and shall not vote : 

First. Persons who employ hired labor in order to 
obtain profit. 

Second. Persons who have an income, such as inter- 
est in capital, rents, receipts from property, etc. 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 139 

Third. Private merchants, trade and commercial 
brokers. 

Fourth. Monks and clergy of all denominations. 

Fifth. Employees and agents of the former police, 
the gendarmery, and the Czar's secret service ; also mem- 
bers of the former reigning dynasty. 

Sixth. The demented or mentally deficient. 

Seventh. Persons who have been deprived by a So- 
viet of their rights of citizenship, because of selfishness, 
or dishonorable offense's, for the period fixed by the sen- 
tence. 

Section 7 affords great opportunity for construction; 
the Soviets are given power to disfranchise citizens, be- 
cause of (C selfishness or dishonorable offenses." Who 
shall say what constitute these offenses? The courts? 
No. The people? No. The dictator? Yes. When we 
remember that the first thing the Bolsheviki did when 
they came into power was to drive from the Soviets 
every one disagreeing with the Bolshevist plan of conn 
munism, at once and by force, it is easy to understand 
the terrible power given in this phrase and the tyrannical 
use that could be made of it. Every difference of opin- 
ion with their methods or plans would be a selfish and 
dishonorable offense in the eyes of the Bolshevist rulers, 
and the foolhardy dissenter could be stripped of his citi- 
zenship, and, no doubt, would be. This section writes 
the death warrant of freedom of opinion ; it gives to the 
Soviets a bludgeon with which to beat men and women 
out of citizenship. It makes the citizen the servant, the 
officeholder the master; it is government upside down. 



140 THE NEW WORLD 

In a note to section 64 of article 4 of the Constitu- 
tion, we learn the local Soviets may, with the consent of 
the People's Commissars, "lower the age qualifications 
for voters/' 

What a splendid opportunity this joker in the consti- 
tution offers for political jockeying. If the central pow- 
er discovers it is about to lose control of a village or 
rural Soviet, it has the power to nip the uprising in the 
bud. The People's Commissars can arrange with the mi- 
nority in the local Soviet to reduce the age limit and give 
the vote to young boys and girls. When it is remem- 
bered that the constitution directs the People's Commis- 
sar of education to introduce in all Russian schools the 
study, explanation and justification of the Bolshevist con- 
stitution, it is not hard to understand why young people 
in whose minds has been drilled a reverence for Bol- 
shevism should vote for and support the Bolshevist pro- 
gram. 

Three groups of people classified by their occupations 
are permitted citizenship. They are the members of the 
army and navy, the working men and women, and the 
peasants who do not hire labor. Every one else is made 
an outcast. The man who has saved a little money, earned 
in the sweat of his brow, and invested it, is not per- 
mitted to become a citizen; the man who has a little 
shop — it may represent the sacrifices and savings of his 
whole life — comes under the ban, he is unfit for free 
citizenship in Bolshevist Russia; the farmer who hires 
help, even though it is a single farm-hand in harvest 
time, is a "criminal exploiter," and he is denied the right 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 141 

to vote or hold office. It is dangerous to give the thrifty, 
the industrious, the vote. 

Lenin's antipathy to democracy is clearly stated in 
his denunciation of the Mensheviki, which is the rival 
faction of the Socialist Party in Russia: 

In its class composition, this party is not Socialist at all. 
It doesn't represent the laboring masses; it represents 

FAIRLY PROSPEROUS PEASANTS AND WORKING MEN, PETTY 
TRADERS AND MANY SMALL AND SOME EVEN FAIRLY LARGE 
CAPITALISTS, AND A NUMBER OF REAL BUT GULLIBLE PROLETA- 
RIANS WHO HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN THE BOURGEOISIE NET. 

A "fairly prosperous" working man may be a prole- 
tarian, but because he does not accept the will of Lenin 
he is denied citizenship and looked upon with scorn by 
the Bolsheviki. 

The man who devotes his life to religion, who com- 
forts the poor, visits the sick, is the servant of God, is 
driven from the Political House ; he is denied the right to 
vote. 

Lincoln — sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who lived for 
man, once said: 

It (the Bible) is the best gift which God has given to 
man. All the good from the Savior of the World is commu- 
nicated to us through this Book. But for that Book, we 
could not know right from wrong. All those things desir- 
able to man are contained in it. 

Theodore Roosevelt said: 

You may look through the Bible from cover to cover and 
nowhere will you find a line that can be construed into an 



142 THE NEW WORLD 

apology for the man of brains who sins against the Light. 
On the contrary, in the Bible, taking that as a guide, you 
will find that because much has been given to you, much will 
be expected from you; and the heavier condemnation is to 
be visited upon the able man who goes wrong than upon his 
weaker brother who cannot do the harm that the other does, 
because it is not in him to do it. 



Bolshevism is purely materialistic. It has either a 
great fear or a great hatred of God. From the begin- 
ning it has shown a positive antagonism toward the Bible. 
It excluded from all oaths the mention of the Supreme 
Being. The Bolshevist attitude on religion is epito- 
mized in the following anecdote: 

It was the custom under the old regime that on Easter 
Sunday every newspaper in the empire carried the headline 
"Christ is Risen." On Easter, 1918, all Bolshevist papers 
substituted for this sacred sentiment, "100 years ago Karl 
Marx was born." 

The fact that men and women were born in Russia, 
that their parents and grandparents were natives of the 
soil for centuries, means nothing to the Soviet Govern- 
ment. These disfranchised ones speak the Russian lan- 
guage; it is their only tongue. Their blood has had a 
part in Russian suffering, yet the Bolshevist Constitu- 
tion exiles them; they are natives without a country; 
and why? Because by honesty and industry they have 
saved a little or because they are giving their lives to the 
service of man in the name of the Lowly One. 

Die Freiheit, the Berlin Organ of the Independent 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 143 

Social Democrats, a revolutionary newspaper, which has 
been most friendly to Bolsheviki, says: 

Purity of principles is for Russia only an article for ex- 
portation. Always seeking to introduce anarchy and disor- 
der in the world. Lenin to-day finds his road to Damascus, 
for he is making a fresh appeal to capitalists forms in order 
to reestablish the general economy of the country. The dic- 
tatorship of the proletariat is reducing itself to the dictator- 
ship of a few communist leaders. The Councils' system is 
broken up, for the workers have no longer any influence in 
the factories. The Agrarian program of the communist is a 
complete Fiasco. 

The constitutional provision defining citizenship puts a 
premium on indolence, a penalty on industry; it encour- 
ages waste; it punishes economy; it makes the successful 
an outcast; it makes of the ne'er-do-well a citizen; fru- 
gality, thrift and industry are crimes ; those who possess 
these qualities are branded as undesirables; they are de- 
nied citizenship. 

Lenin tried to justify all of this by saying that in the 
transition from capitalism to socialism it is necessary 
to rule with an iron hand. Capitalism must be destroyed. 
The system must be uprooted. Even so, what right has 
Lenin, without the consent of the majority, to take citi- 
zenship from native Russians? What is his excuse? 
Where is the force of his argument? Even admitting, 
for the sake of argument, that communism, Bolshevism, 
is a panacea for all the ills of the human race, what right 
has Lenin and his minority to force it on the people of 
Russia? Conceding his creed is for the common good, 



144 ' THE NEW WORLD 

is it not his first duty to make the people see and under- 
stand its virtues, and then, by and with the majority 
consent, put the creed to the test? To assert that his 
program is economic does not change the fact that his 
methods are undemocratic. The Lenin system of dis^ 
franchising the people must eventually demoralize them. 

How can a people be free without learning self-reli- 
ance, without trying self-government ? Proclaiming peo- 
ple free does not make them free. Freedom is action. 
It is the ability to govern one's self. It comes from 
experience and exercise in governing one's self. The 
definition of freedom is self-determination, and the word 
"self" is an important part of the definition. Admit- 
ting for the moment that Lenin is trying to govern the 
people for their benefit, although not permitting them a 
thinking part in the government, does it not follow that 
his methods incapacitate the people for self-government ? 
How can a child learn to walk except by trying, and 
even though the child stumbles and falls, is bruised and 
hurt, these experiences are part of the education in walk- 
ing. 

The right to vote is the test of freedom. Rob a free 
man of his voting right and you make of him something 
less than a free man. It does not matter whether you 
treat him well or not, if you rule him without giving him 
a say in his own government, you destroy his independ- 
ence. Suppose the constitution of a debating society, a' 
lodge, a farmer's grange, a labor union, declared that 
some members could hold office and vote, while 
others were not eligible for office and could not vote. 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 145 

What would be the position in the body of those who 
were denied all right of participation in its affairs? 
They would be compelled to obey the rules, do the 
bidding and bow to the wish of those who had the right 
to vote. What would be the effect upon the vote- 
less ones? They would be demoralized; they would 
become nonentities. Those possessing the voting 
power would grow arrogant, arbitrary and autocratic. 
The war of the ages, the struggle of all history has been 
the fight of men for equality in government. The right 
to vote is the supreme test. 

Experience has formulated certain tests by which it 
is safe to fix the credibility of witnesses and determine 
the value and weight that should be given to their testi- 
mony. It is of first importance that the witness has had 
opportunity to know the facts about which he testifies. 

Oscar Tokoi, prime minister of Finland, spent sev- 
eral months in Russia. He had plenty of opportunity to 
observe the operation of the Bolshevist Government and 
conditions in Russia. He entered Russia as a Bolshevist 
sympathizer. Here are his words : 

In comparison with the entire population only a small 
minority supports the government, and what is worse, to 
the support of the government are rallying all the hooligans, 
robbers and others to whom this period of confusion prom- 
ises a good chance of individual action. 

Even a great part of those who from the beginning have 
stood with the government and who still are sincere socialist 
democrats, having seen all this chaos, begin to step aside or 
to ally themselves with those openly opposing the govern- 
ment. Naturally as time goes by there remains only the 



i 4 6 THE NEW WORLD 

worst and most demoralized element. Terror, arbitrary rule 
and open brigandage become more and more usual, and the 
government is not able to prevent it. 

Karl Radek, a leading Bolshevist, is authority for the 
statement that the peasants do not want Soviet rule. In 
an interview in Berlin given to a correspondent of the 
New York Globe, he said: 

The claim made by some of our people that the majority 
of the Russian people favor a Soviet Government is not 
true. The peasants are against the Soviet Government. 

Lenin's special defense has been that the "class-con- 
scious" proletariat, those to whom he gives credit for 
bringing about the revolution, favor the Bolshevist gov- 
ernment. The government is defined to be a "dictator- 
ship of the proletariat." If the proletariat are not in 
favor of the government, then it is obviously a dicta- 
torship of Lenin and Trotzky alone maintained by the 
"Red" Guard. Samuel Gompers, patriot and grand old 
man of organized labor in the United States, quotes the 
following from the Bolshevist Communar of May 17, 
1919: 

"The Sytin Printing Works employs 1600 persons. In the 
communist nucleus there are ten communists and sixty sym- 
pathizers. After the meeting at which an anti-Kolchak 
resolution was defeated, a "vindication committee" was 
elected to explain in the press the true attitude of the shop : 
"The workers of the shop are against Kolchak, but they 
would not adopt the resolution, because it came from the 
Bolsheviki." 

"Postavschik" — employs 2,660 workmen. The nucleus has 



THE SOVIET MACHINE 147 

thirty-six communists and ten sympathizers. Of these there 
are only eight persons in the place and no party work is 
therefore conducted. The shop committee consists of com- 
munists. Literature is well distributed, 700 copies of news- 
papers and from 15 to 200 copies of magazines. 

Here we see that even the immense Soviet subsidies for 
propaganda are futile in spite of the fact that the workers 
are advanced socialists, shut off from the outside world and 
without an independent press. It will be noted that in the 
most of these factories the economic dependence of the work- 
ers on the Soviets for jobs, bread tickets and factory subsi- 
dies, to say nothing of terrorism, has led to Bolshevist com- 
mittees of shop officials. 

"Bromley" — 1200 workers employed. The group consists 
of ten communists and fifteen sympathizers. The group 
meets every week. The factory committee is communist, the 
general state of mind is improving. 

"Einem" — employs 1400 workers, 850 of whom are 
women. The nucleus is forty communists and eight sym- 
pathizers. Their influence in the factory is little. The pre- 
siding officers of the shop are communists. Lectures are 
arranged occasionally. Newspapers are well distributed. 

"Centrosoyuz" — 900 workingmen are employed. The nu- 
cleus twenty-five communists and four sympathizers. The 
women are very backward and party work among them is 
very difficult. 

"The Electric Station of 1886"— 1300 workmen are em- 
ployed. The communistic group has twenty-seven members. 
Party work is not being conducted. The general state of 
mind is calm. The shop committee is communist. 

This publication (the Bolshevist Communar) lists 1600 
workers in one part of Moscow and finds among these 687 
Bolshevist party members and sympathizers. The one union 
mentioned in the district shows about one-half of its mem- 
bership in these two classes. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF LIBERTY 

According to the Bolshevist rulers of Russia all the 
world is old-fashioned — behind the times. We still cling 
to the belief that the people should be the sovereigns, 
that public officials are public servants, that the safest 
plan of government is that form of government which 
is nearest to the people. In the United States each citi- 
zen has a vote for the men who make the local laws, the 
city or village ordinances; a vote for the man who en- 
forces the ordinances, the mayor; a vote for the repre- 
sentatives in the state legislature, where the laws are 
made; for the governor, who enforces the state laws; a 
vote for the congressmen and senators who enact the 
national laws and formulate the national policies, and a 
vote for the president, who carries out the supreme law 
of the land. While it is true that in the case of the 
president, we vote for electors who elect the president, 
the electors vote instructed by the people. We come to- 
gether in political parties, present platforms, and every 
citizen has a chance to register his opinion of men and 
measures. The citizen has a right to vote at primary 
elections for party candidates and for the delegates to 
the conventions which formulate the party platforms. 



THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF LIBERTY 149 

The Bolsheviki point out that political parties do not 
live up to their platforms ; that candidates for office de- 
fault in their promises after elected; that representative 
democracy is frequently not representative of the peo- 
ple. We have the power to express our wants, to record 
our will and we also have the power to punish our be- 
trayal. We can recall from office recreant public ser- 
vants; we can add to our legislation by assuming the 
power to initiate laws, and by compelling the reference 
of legislation back to the people before it can become 
operative as law. Our public officials are merely our 
agents; we hire them, we pay them; we can discharge 
them and punish them if they fail to obey our instruc- 
tions. Such is our power. If we do not use the power 
intelligently and effectively it is our fault. If we are 
indifferent to the rights we possess and fail to use them, 
the fault is with us. Therefore, we do not condemn a 
system of representative government because some of 
the individuals in that government are unfit and un- 
worthy of the rights they enjoy. 

The Bolsheviki favor a change in the method of gov- 
erning the people. The plan adopted is based on the 
theory that the people cannot be trusted, but that the 
officeholders are above suspicion. Bolshevism is gov- 
ernment from the top down, rather than from the bot- 
tom up. They work on the idea that power delegated 
through many hands will lose its corruption just as run- 
ning water does. 

There is a numeral which* we know as the "jester" of 
numbers. It is the number "23." It is known in Amer- 



150 THE NEW WORLD 

ican slang as "skiddoo." The Bolsheviki inserted in the 
constitution a joker, and oddly enough they gave it the 
"skiddoo" number, "23." It is found in Article 2 of 
the constitution: 

Being guided by the interest of the working class as a 
whole, the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic de- 
prives all individuals and groups of all rights which could 
be utilized by them to the detriment of the socialist revolu- 
tion. 

Here is the big beware sign in the constitution. What 
does it mean; what fears must come into the minds of 
men and women in Russia when they read this para- 
graph? The constitution deprives every one, individ- 
ually and collectively, of exercising any rights he or they 
may have which are opposed to Bolshevism. Did tyran- 
ny ever impose a more arbitrary, autocratic ukase? The 
paragraph first concedes that individuals and groups 
have rights, and then commands the people not to dare 
use those rights. Freedom of opinion is crushed, even 
thought is silenced. Who is to determine what rights, 
if exercised, might be detrimental to a socialist revolu- 
tion ? The meaning is as plain as the command is stern. 
Fall in line with Bolshevism or perish, is the order. 

I wonder what the militant soap-boxers, who shout 
about freedom of speech, would think and say if in these 
days of unrest the Congress of the United States and 
the President should make such a pronouncement. Amer- 
ica, radical and conservative, would rise in protest 
against any such law. We live, grow and progress as 
a people because of our freedom of thought, speech and 



THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF LIBERTY 151 

action. We silence the man who criminally advocates 
lawlessness, and we do it for the same reason that we 
arrest the man who spits on the sidewalk. It is to con- 
serve the public welfare, the common good of the great 
majority who do not believe in violence and disorder. 
What would happen to our "Red" agitators if they were 
in Russia to-day and ventured a single disagreement 
with the Bolshevist program, either in policy or methods ? 
This constitutional provision is not a muffler on free 
speech, it is a gag. 

What freedom can there be in a country in which 
opinion is shackled? How can a nation make progress 
except by the conflict and friction of opinion? In the 
United States, experience has taught us that the ma- 
jority is generally right, that the many can be trusted. 
We have put into practice the idea that many heads are 
better than one. The Bolshevist powers insist the fewer 
heads the better. This is the method they adopted to 
socialize freedom of thought, freedom of speech. It 
means a communism of ideas, but a very limited com- 
munism. Limited in fact to the "Holy Seventeen," and 
the oracle-dictator. The people are outside the pale 
of this communism. In their zone communism com- 
mands obedience and silence. The human race has 
fought many a fine fight to take the fetters from the 
minds of men, and no fight was ever made for a more 
essential liberty. When the mind of man is not free, 
what freedom can there be? The jailing of the body, 
serious as it is, is only a small interference with man's 
liberty compared with the imprisonment of his mind. 



152 THE NEW WORLD 

The Bolshevist clamp muzzles the press, and this is 
one of the most serious phases in the present situation. 
Notwithstanding all the criticism which may be justly 
made against the press, the fact remains that the news- 
papers of the world have been a great force for good, 
a great power in securing freedom. We see the world 
through the eyes of the newspaper; it is our source 
of information; we depend upon it for the facts 
upon which we base our opinions. Notwithstanding the 
bitter partisan character of much of the press, few pa- 
pers know party lines or party prejudice when public 
interest is menaced. The press has thrown a terrific 
searchlight on ratholes and driven out the rats. The 
freedom of the press is indispensable to free government. 

Lenin, before he came into power, was the loudest 
voice in Russia, crying for free speech. His pen had 
been most bitter against interference with the freedom 
of the press. In his pamphlet, "Lessons of Revolution," 
he wrote : 

The printing establishments of the labor press are raided. 
The Bolsheviki are arrested, not infrequently without accu- 
sation, or on the pretext of charges which are simply calum- 
nious. 

It may be argued that the prosecution of the Bolsheviki is 
by no means a violation of free speech, since only certain 
persons on specific charges are thus prosecuted. But such 
arguments bear the earmarks of premeditated untruth. For 
why should printing offices be raided, newspapers sup- 
pressed, for the crimes of individuals, even if these crimes 
are proven and sustained by law? It would be altogether 
different if the government declared criminal the entire 



THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF LIBERTY 153 

—•* 
Bolshevist party, its ideas and views. But every one knows 
"that the government of free Russia never could, and indeed 
never attempted to do anything- of the kind." 

There is not a word in the Soviet Constitution about 
the right of a trial by jury. There is no such thing in- 
tended. Under the American Constitution, and in that 
of every civilized country, the citizen has the right to 
submit his case to a jury of his Peers when accused of 
any crime or misdemeanor. He has the right to appeal 
to a court, that is independent of the Executive Power 
and the Legislative Power, for the protection of any 
and every right, the deprivation of which is threatened. 
This right is the safeguard of the liberty of the poorest 
and most friendless individual. He has the right to the 
assistance of counsel, and to force the attendance of 
witnesses in his defense. If he is detained without a 
charge being made against him, held without warrant 
in law, he can appeal to the courts and compel the high- 
est officers of the law to show cause why he is being de- 
prived of his liberty. 

Not so under the Socialist Constitution of Russia. All 
power — executive, legislative and judicial — is placed in 
the same hands. There is no appeal from the decisions 
of this autocratic court, and the writ of habeas corpus 
does not exist. 

Lenin coming into power wrote into the constitution 
new crimes, and he left out of the law the right of a 
fair trial for those accused. He declared all opposition 
to the Bolshevist program a crime. Thereupon, he 
struck down freedom of thought, freedom of speech, 



154 THE NEW WORLD 

freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, and freedom 
of Justice. 

BOLSHEVISM IS A RULE OF FORCE 
The effort to socialize politics did not democratize 
politics; it was not intended to. In practical operation, 
it fulfilled its purpose, it created a political autocracy. 

The greatest power in Russia to-day is the "Red" 
army. Without an army a minority government cannot 
exist. Force is the strength and security of minority 
rule. Bayonets held the Czar on his throne, the same 
weapons hold the Lenin-Trotzky government in author- 
ity. Every inducement has been offered men to join the 
army. This is practically the only real job in Russia 
to-day. The soldier is at least guaranteed good food and 
a warm bunk. He escapes the danger of cold and starva- 
tion. Living conditions are better in the "Red" army 
than in any other occupation. 

Section 19 of Article 3 of the constitution is interest- 
ing: 

For the purpose of defending the victory of the great 
peasants' and workers' revolution, the Russian Socialist Fed- 
eral Soviet Republic recognizes the duty of all citizens of 
the republic to come to the defense of their socialist father- 
land, and it, therefore, introduces universal military train- 
ing. The honor of defending the revolution with arms is 
accorded only to the workers, and the non-working elements 
are charged with the performance of other military duties. 

No one except the "Reds" in Russia is allowed to pos- 
sess or carry arms. This rule is strictly enforced, and 
searches for arms have been made almost weekly. As 



THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF 'LIBERTY 155 

a consequence, the one armed force in Russia to-day is 
the "Red" army, and this is the backbone of the Bol- 
shevist government. The people are utterly helpless. 
As long as the army is well fed, warm and well clothed, 
it will continue to be the most popular employment in 
Russia. 

Carrying out its general plan of socialization, the Bol- 
shevist government stripped army officers of rank, and 
in doing so, tried to live up to the constitution forbidding 
the bourgeoisie entering the army. However, this theory, 
like many others, did not work out in practice. Skill in 
military direction is indispensable to an effective military 
machine. Facing civil war, with the "Red" army alone 
between the government and disaster, Lenin and Trotzky 
found it expedient to ignore the constitution. It was 
necessary to have trained men as officers, and the bour- 
geoisie to whom they had denied citizenship and the 
honor of defending the republic, were called upon to 
advise the army. 

Albert Rhyse Williams is a devoted friend of Lenin's. 
He was so enamored with the Bolshevist movement 
that he offered to join the "Red" army. He has written 
a biography of Lenin, from which I quote: 

He (Lenin) sent an automobile with "Red" guards to the 
fortress of Peter and Paul to fetch part of the counter-revo- 
lutionary staff in prison there. 

"Gentlemen," said Lenin, as the generals filed into his 
office. "I have brought you here for expert advice — Petro- 
grad is in danger. Will you be good enough to work out the 
military tactics for its defense?" They assented. 



156 THE NEW WORLD 

"Here are our forces," resumed Lenin, indicating upon 
the map the location of the "Red" troops, munitions and 
reserves. "And here are our latest reports upon the number 
and disposition of the enemy troops. Anything else the gen- 
erals desire they will call for." 

They set to work and toward evening handed him the 
result of their deliberations. "Now," said the generals, in- 
gratiatingly, "will the premier be good enough to allow us 
more comfortable quarters?" 

"My exceeding regrets," replied Lenin; "some other time, 
but not just now. Your quarters, gentlemen, may not be 
comfortable but they have the merit of being safe." The 
staff was returned to the fortress of Peter and Paul. 

I have given this excerpt from the life of Lenin, not 
because the incident is important, but because it illus- 
trates the difference between Bolshevist theory and prac- 
tice. I am not criticizing Lenin's good sense in prompt- 
ly abandoning the foolish theory he wrote in the consti- 
tution — I am trying to emphasize the foolishness and im- 
practicability of the theory. 

So in the very beginning of the experiment called 
Bolshevism, its leaders broke their promises and treach- 
erously struck down the people's convention, the constit- 
uent assembly. Evidence of their breach of faith is 
found in the first proclamation issued by the Bolshevist 
government. 

Second, they commanded the peasants to seize the 
land, and by so doing they gave sanction to dishonesty. 

Third, they sent democratic methods and machinery to 
the scrap pile and built the Soviet machine, a plan of gov- 



THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF LIBERTY 157 

eminent which robbed the people of all say in their own 
affairs. 

Fourth, they founded their government on force, the 
right of might. 

Fifth, they delivered the power to a class of office- 
holders. 

Sixth, they discriminated against the "poor peasants. ,, 

Seventh, they disfranchised good Russian men and 
women, whose only fault was that they were thrifty and 
industrious. 

Eighth, they destroyed freedom of speech and of the 
press. 

Ninth, they stood for revolution and blood, instead of 
political action and evolution. 

Tenth, last but of the greatest moment, the Bolshevist 
government built its national house on the dangerous 
foundation of minority rule. One evidence of the mi- 
nority rule in Bolshevist Russia is found in the 191 9 
registration of voters in Moscow and Petrograd. It is 
estimated that Moscow has a population of almost a 
million and a half, yet out of this great number only 
13,600 voters registered. Petrograd, with a population 
of between 600,000 and 750,000, registered a little less 
than 15,000 voters. These two cities are admitted to be 
the strongholds of Bolshevism. The registration figures 
show that about one per cent of the people of Moscow 
and Petrograd are sufficiently attached to Bolshevism to 
register. 

Bolshevism snuffed out the light in Russia when it 
killed freedom. It did not destroy thought. It has not 



158 THE NEW WORLD 

conquered the manhood and womanhood of Russia; it 
has but disarmed them. 

Somewhere I have heard or read that tolerance is a 
quality of freedom; that intolerance is a symptom of des- 
potism. Maybe I am thinking of the Greek conception, 
the idea of Plato. Surely, tolerance is no part of* the 
Bolshevist program. In a letter addressed to the work- 
ers of Europe and America, dated January 21, 1919, 
Lenin wrote: 

Now, no conscientious working man and no sincere So- 
cialist can fail to see what shameful treason against social- 
ism was perpetrated by those* who, in line with the Menshe- 
viki of Russia, with the Scheidemanns and Suedekums of 
Germany, with the Renaudels of France, and Vanderveldes 
of Belgium; with the Hendersons and Webs in England, and 
with Gompers and Co. in America, supported their bour- 
geoisie in the war of 1914-1918. 

Another paragraph from the same letter : 

Side by side with these cowardly pennywise mongers who 
are stuffed with the prejudices of bourgeois democracy, side 
by side with these Socialists, who yesterday defended "their" 
imperialistic governments, and who to-day confine themselves 
to platonic "protest" against "military intervention in Rus- 
sia," side by side with them, we see in the Allied countries 
an increase in the number of those who have chosen the 
communist road. 

Lenin attacks Samuel Gompers, the president of the 
American Federation of Labor, and the labor movement 
of America, for loyalty to our country in the hour of 
her greatest trial. Lenin brands every soldier and sailor 



THE SOVIET DEFINITION OF LIBERTY 159 

who offered his life to stop the Kaiser and his Prussian 
machine in the mad effort to conquer the world, a sup- 
porter of the bourgoisie. Lenin assails and condemns 
the manhood of the world that answered the "help" cry 
of Belgium when Prussia was raping and murdering 
Belgium in the front yard of Europe. What would have 
happened to Russia if these brave men whom Lenin now 
assails had not offered themselves? Russia would have 
been lashed to the Kaiser's chariot, Christ chained to a 
Krupp* gun. 

The first of all the Bolsheviki will not go down in 
history as — "Lenin the Tolerant." 



CHAPTER XIII 
CLASH OF FACT AND THEORY 

On November 10, 1917, the Bolshevist government 
came into existence. One month later a decree was is- 
sued abolishing the private ownership of land and de- 
creeing all the land the property of the state. On Feb- 
ruary 10 the government issued a decree declaring all 
state loans, internal and foreign, null and void. 

The Bolsheviki wrote their revolutionary reform into 
the constitution: 

For the purpose of attaining the socialization of land, 
all private property in land is abolished and the entire land 
is declared to be national property and is to be apportioned 
among the agriculturists without any compensation to the 
former owners in the measure of each one's ability to till it. 

This was at least a fulfillment of the promise of their 
economic program. It was communism through confis- 
cation. The peasants in Russia seized the land. They 
did not have to be persuaded to follow this command of 
the constitution. But they did not take the land as users, 
as the constitution contemplated. They took it as own- 
ers. They are not communists. Their experience with 
communal land ownership had been unsatisfactory. Un- 
der the old regime these peasants were allotted land by 

160 



CLASH OF FACT AND THEORY 161 

the communal Mir. In the Mir the tenancy of a farmer 
was temporary and uncertain. The average length of the 
lease was about thirteen years. Drawings were held and 
the land distributed by lot. With a new drawing the peas- 
ant was compelled to move to the new strip of land allot- 
ted him. This plan took from the peasant much of his in- 
ducement to put his best work into the land. He had 
little incentive for improving the land, for it was not 
his. At the next drawing it would probably go to an- 
other, and he in turn would be shifted to a piece of 
land which might have been neglected and allowed to 
deteriorate. The peasant's irritating experiences with 
communism created an intense desire in him to own his 
own land, to have a permanent home, something to work 
on and to work for. I do not believe there is a country 
in the world where the desire for private ownership of 
land is as deeply rooted as it is in Russia. 

So at the outset of the Bolshevist program we find the 
Soviet government attempting a communistic program 
completely antagonistic to the peasants. Between the 
villages in Russia are great landed estates, the proprie- 
tary lands which are the best in the vicinity and well 
cared for. When the order to seize the land was given, 
the peasants turned to the proprietary lands. The vil- 
lages fought with each other for possession and division 
of these splendid estates. This was the beginning of 
general disorder, small civil wars. The government 
itself had immorally decreed land larceny, the example 
was being followed. 

The government attempted to force its program abol- 



162 THE NEW WORLD 

ishing the private ownership of land. The leaders tried 
to justify the confiscation by saying that the earth be- 
longed to the people; that private title to land was im- 
moral and corrupt; that every man should have all the 
land he could actually work and not one acre more. 
They argued that if a man had more land than he could 
work, one of two things would happen, either he would 
allow his surplus land to remain idle, which would be 
waste, or he would hire some one to work it for him. 
These leaders said the hired man would be either a farm 
laborer or a tenant, and whichever relation he bore to 
the owner of the land he would be compelled to turn 
over part of his labor to the land owner. If he was a 
renter, the rent would be the landlord's profit, in the 
language of the Bolsheviki the "exploitation" of the 
tenant, while if a farm laborer, the wages he received 
would represent something less than the full product of 
his toil. This, too, would be to the profit of the em- 
ployer and, again, in the language of the Bolsheviki the 
"exploitation of the worker." 

The Bolsheviki argued that their plan of land commu- 
nization would make better citizens, that the hired man 
man, made a land user, would be given an inducement to 
work. But the title to the land was not to be his, nor 
was the product of his toil to belong to him. He was to 
work for the state. The state was omier and boss. In 
theory the peasant was to work for the common good of 
all — a fine bit of idealism, but unfortunately entirely 
contrary to human nature. The success of the plan de- 
pended upon human beings. 



CLASH OF FACT AND THEORY 163 

Two things resulted. One class of peasants worked 
the land just enough to produce what they and their 
families needed, for they reasoned, "Why should we 
work after our needs are supplied?" This not unnat- 
ural attitude of mind reduced production. Of course, 
it was a selfish attitude, but human nature has not 
evolved out of the self-interest stage. The theory which 
the Bolsheviki promised would increase production on 
the land, in practice decreased production. 

Another class of peasants worked hard, produced 
much, but refused to give up the product of their labor 
to the state. They insisted that the result of their labor 
belonged to themselves. 

Both classes were individualists. When they seized 
the land under Lenin's decree they were individualists 
and took it for themselves. Before the revolution they 
were individualists and the big cry of their lives was 
against the system which deprived them of the right to 
own the land they tilled and the product that came from 
it through their toil. The peasants, like most other peo- 
ple who have anything, are not communists in prac- 
tice, when the operation of communism affects their own 
holdings. It may be and probably is an ugly, unfortu- 
nate truth, but it is a truth just the same, that the over- 
whelming majority of the human race are selfish, at least 
to the extent of wanting the personal joy of acquiring 
and owning property. 

For a time those peasants who had a surplus sold their 
products to the government. In payment they received 
paper money of very doubtful value. Then began the 



164 THE NEW WORLD 

hoarding of farm products. The peasants refused to 
deliver their gain in exchange for questionable paper. 
They demanded in exchange for their farm products 
manufactured articles which they needed. The govern- 
ment did not have the manufactured articles with which 
to buy the farm products. The proletariat of the cities 
was hungry. It was up to the Bolshevist government to 
feed them or fall. Whatever support the government 
had was in the cities. Raiding parties of the "Red" 
Guard were ordered to the country and directed to seize 
the grain. The peasants not only believed in private 
ownership but they united to fight to protect their pri- 
vate property. The story of the "Red" army's invasion 
of the country to loot the peasants' stores will some day 
be told in detail, and it will furnish an interesting chapter 
of tragedies. 

The socialization of land never had a chance for suc- 
cess in Russia. Lenin and Trotzky were compelled to 
repudiate their program and abandon land communism. 
Receding from its plan of land socialism the Bolshevist 
government made an effort to use the proprietary es- 
tates on a cooperative plan. The problem of feeding the 
proletariat of the cities still remained. When induce- 
ments failed threats were made in an effort to get the 
peasants to work the proprietary estates for the govern- 
ment. Graft, inefficiency of administration and the re- 
fusal of the peasants to work the estates caused the fail- 
ure of this plan. 

Kerzhenstey, in Izvestia, an official Bolshevist news- 



CLASH OF FACT AND THEORY 165 

paper, of January 22, 1919, gives the following picture 
of the situation: 



The facts describing the village Soviet of the Uran bor- 
ough present a shocking picture which is no doubt typical of 
all other corners of our provincial Soviet life. The chair- 
man of this village Soviet, Rekhalev, and his nearest co- 
workers, have done all in their power to antagonize the 
population against the Soviet rule. Rekhalev himself has 
often been found in an intoxicated condition and he has 
frequently assaulted the local inhabitants. The beating up 
of visitors to the Soviet office is an ordinary occurrence. In 
the village of Bierezovka the peasants have been thrashed, 
not only with fists but have been assaulted with sticks, robbed 
of their footwear and cast into damp cellars, on bare earthen 
floors. The members of the executive committee, Glakhov, 
Morev and Makhov, and others, have gone even further. 
They have organized "requisition parties" which are nothing 
else but organized pillagings, in the course of which they 
have used wire-wrapped sticks on the recalcitrants. The 
abundant testimony verified by the Soviet committee por- 
trays a very striking picture of violence. When these mem- 
bers of the executive committee arrived at the township of 
Sadomovo they commenced to assault the population and 
to rob them of foodstuffs and other household belongings 
such as quilts, clothing, harness and so forth. No receipts 
for the requisitioned goods were given and no money paid. 
They even resold to others on the spot some of the bread- 
stuffs which they had requisitioned. 

This is the testimony of a leader high in the councils 
of the Bolshevist government. 

Latzis, a Bolshevist partisan, reported in the official 
Izvestia of January 5, 1919, that "In the Velizsh county 



166 THE NEW WORLD 

of the province of Vitebsk they are flogging the peasants 
by the authority of the local Soviet committee." 

In the Bolshevist newspaper Severnaya Kommuna of. 
May 10, 1919, a Bolshevist official, Krivoshaye, remarks : 

The Soviet workers are taking from the peasants chickens, 
geese, bread and butter without paying for it. In some 
households of these poverty-stricken folk they are confiscat- 
ing even the pillows and the samovars and everything they 
can get their hands on. The peasants naturally feel very 
bitter toward the Soviet rule. 

The peasants' borough meeting of the province of 
Kostroma forwarded a resolution to Lenin saying: 

The members of the Soviets are ruling us ; they are violat- 
ing our will and are tantalizing us as if we were dumb 
cattle. 

Latkin, a "Red" army soldier returning from a jour- 
ney through several counties in the province of Moscow, 
gave to Izvestia on May 7, 1919, the following descrip- 
tion of the frame of mind of the peasants, which he de- 
scribed as very gloomy: 

The peasants are dissatisfied with the war, are against the 
"Red" army and therefore give protection to deserters and 
persuade the soldiers not to obey orders. The middle pea- 
sants are beginning to cooperate with the village capitalists 
in their resistance to the Soviet authorities. 

The tyranny of the dictatorship of the proletariat has 
been nationwide. The peasants have been the victims. 
In the Moscow Izvestia of May, 1919, was published the 
following letter from the province of Vitebsk. 



CLASH OF FACT AND THEORY 167 

Of late there has been going on in the village a really 
scandalous orgy. It is necessary to call attention to the 
destructive war of the scoundrels who work themselves into 
responsible positions. Evidently all the good and unselfish 
beginnings of the workingmen and peasant authorities were 
either purposely or unintentionally perverted by these adven- 
tures in order to undermine the confidence of the peasants 
in the existing government in order to provoke dissatisfac- 
tion and rebellion. It is no exaggeration to say that no open 
counter-revolutionary or enemy of the proletariat has done 
as much harm to the Socialist Republic as charlatans of this 
sort. Take, as an instance, the third district of Vitebsk in 
the county of Dekiashkov. Here the taxes imposed upon 
the peasants were as follows : P. Sloukov owning seventeen 
desiatins 1 was compelled to pay a tax of 5,000 rubles, while 
U. Zoprit, owning twenty-four desiatins, paid only 500 
rubles. S. Grigoriev paid 2,000 rubles on twenty-nine desia- 
tins, while Ivan Tselov paid 8,000 rubles on twenty-three 
desiatins. 

The writer after quoting other instances of discrimi- 
nation adds that the soil was alike in all cases. 

Vopatin of the province of Tambov writes to the 
Izvestia as follows : 

Help ! We are perishing ! At the time when we are 
starving, do you know what is going on in the villages? 
Take for instance our village Olkhi. Speculation is rife 
here, especially with salt, which sells at ten rubles a pound., 
What does the militia do? What do the Soviets do? When 
it is reported to them they wave their hands and say, "This 
is a normal phenomenon." Not only this, but the militia- 
men, beginning with the chief and including some commu- 
nists, are all engaged in brewing their own alcohol, which 
sells for seventy rubles a bottle. Nobody who is in close 

*Two and seven-tenths acres equals one desiatin. 



168 THE NEW WORLD 

touch with the militia is afraid to engage in this work. 
Hunger is ahead of us, but neither the citizens nor the 
"authorities" recognize it. The people's judge also drinks, 
and if one wishes to win a case one only needs to treat him 
to a drink. We live in a terrible filth. There is no soap. 
People and horses are suffering from skin diseases. Epi- 
demics are inevitable in summer. If Moscow will pay no 
attention to us, then we will perish. We had an election for 
the village and county Soviet, but the voting occurred in 
violation of the constitution of the Soviet goernment. As a 
result of this a number of agents of capitalists who under 
the guise of communists entered the party in order to avoid 
the requisitions and contributions, were elected. The labor- 
ing peasantry is thus being turned against the government, 
and this at a time when the hosts of Kolchak are advancing 
from the east. 

The peasants are hiding their rubles, holding them for 
a day when they hope that the blight of communism will 
pass and some democratic government will reorganize 
Russia, bring order out of chaos, establish freedom. Their 
Safety Deposit Boxes are empty bottles into which the 
peasants stuff their paper rubles and then bury the bot- 
tles in the ground. They are waiting for the day when 
a stable government will redeem these paper promises 
which to-day are of little value. It is proof of their lack 
of trust in the Soviet government, a trust forfeited 
when the government repudiated its foreign obligations 
and confiscated all private property in Russia. 

The Constitution of the United States says : 

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property 
without due process of law; nor shall private property be 
taken for public use without just compensation. 



CLASH OF FACT AND THEORY 169 

Every citizen in America enjoys the right of Private 
Property when he owns the tools with which he works, 
and banks his savings. He enjoys the right of private 
property when he buys a home, when he puts his earn- 
ings into a shop, when he becomes an employer. The 
right of private property enables the working man to 
become an employer. In this way American Industry has 
been built up. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE FAILURE OF THE SOCIALIZATION OF INDUSTRY 

The Bolshevist government seized industry ; the work- 
ing men took over the factories. It was part of the 
plan of communism. The promise was that the socializa- 
tion of industry would increase production and free the 
workers from exploitation. The owners and managers 
were driven from the plants. These men were of the 
bourgeois class. They had no place in the new scheme of 
things. They were "tainted" with success. They had 
intelligently and efficiently built up their industries. That 
was enough. The Bolshevist denied them citizenship and 
drove them from the enterprises they had built. 

Everything was to be owned in common ; private prop- 
erty of all kinds had been abolished. The men who 
worked in the factories or mills were to be their own 
bosses. They were part of the state, and the state owned 
and operated everything. The government of the fac- 
tory was to be by committee, every man was the equal of 
every other man; orders were given and orders taken 
with this thought in mind. The result was insubordina- 
tion. Every man was boss; all system vanished; sys- 
tem made slaves — Down with system! The business 
brains having been driven out, insubordination having 

170 



FAILURE TO SOCIALIZE INDUSTRY 171 

come in, production declined until it almost ceased. 
Many workers gave up in disgust and returned to their 
villages. The exodus from Petrograd was marked. Prior 
to 1 91 5 Petrograd was a city of nearly 2,000,000. In 
1 9 18 its population had shrunk to less than 800,000. 
Factories closed. Again the theory of communism, 
when put to the test, failed. 

The official organ of the trade union of Petrograd, the 
Trud of April 28, 1919, in discussing the closing down 
of nineteen textile mills gives the following reasons for 
the economic crisis : 

"Of great significance in our textile crisis is also the 
inefficient using of what could be used, as the productivity 
of labor has dropped to nil, while there is not even a hint 
of labor discipline and the machines have become useless 
as a result of careless handling, and their productive capa- 
city lowered." 

A similar situation developed in Moscow according to 
the official Bolshevist newspaper, Izvestia, of April 3, 
1919: 

At a conference of the main administrative board of tex- 
tile enterprises, the question of closing down textile factories 
was discussed. As the result of the debate it was resolved 
to consider inexpedient the closing down of factories, to 
recommend as necessary only the partial closing down in 
dependence upon local conditions and the situation of the 
various enterprises of the textile industry. 

It was also resolved to take measures to preserve the basic 
groups of workmen in these enterprises and to establish 
them in necessary work during the period of the closing 
down of factories. It was also resolved to use the period of 



172 THE NEW WORLD 

closure to make repairs and lay in supplies of raw material 
and fuel, and also to use these workmen for agricultural 
work. The question of closing down all textile industries 
will be decided finally at a joint conference of representa- 
tives of the main administrative board and of the trade 
union of textile workers. 

A striking result of the disorganization of the textile 
industry as printed in Izvestia of February 6, 191 9, 
follows : 

The official estimate of cloth needed for Moscow for 1919, 
its population being given as 600,000 adult males, 700,000 
adult females, and 300,000 children, is as follows: 

Arsheens 1 

Heavy cloth 2,366,670 

Light cloth 12,1 16,670 

Cotton cloth 52,066,670 

1 One arsheen equals 28 inches. 

During September, October, and November altogether 
5,000,000 arsheens of cloth have been issued to the popula- 
tion, which is considered one third of the actual needs. 

Other branches of industry were collapsing in the late 
autumn of 1918 at the very moment when it was claimed 
that the "constructive period" had arrived in Soviet 
Russia. 

The quantity of benzine is so small that Providink, one 
of the largest manufacturing enterprises of Russia, has only 
enough to last for two months; the factories of Bogatyr are 
still more inadequately supplied with rubber. The stocks of 
rubber are barely sufficient for another two months of pro- 
duction. The number of workmen employed has fallen from 
32,000 to 7,500.' 

2 From the official Bolshevist newspaper, National Economy 
and Finance, November 12, 1918. 



FAILURE TO SOCIALIZE INDUSTRY 173 

Transportation has almost completely broken down in 
Russia. Fifty per cent of the Russian steam and sailing 
mercantile marine was not in a condition to resume navi- 
gation at the beginning of 1919, on account of the lack of 
workers, fuel and the decrease in labor productivity. Al- 
together 1407 steamers were registered and 2446 other 
boats. 

The railways are going to pieces in the literal sense of 
the phrase; locomotives have been scrapped at a disas- 
trous rate and few are being produced. 

At a meeting held in connection with the strike at the 
Putilov factory, Zinoviev said that from August, 1918, to 
February, 1919, the factory had turned out only five locomo- 
tives. For the year 1918 the factory had cost the state a 
deficit of 58,000,000 rubles. 3 

The report of the commissariat of railroads shows 
that there were only 250 locomotives in commission in 
Soviet Russia in August, 1919. Of these twenty-one 
were operating on the Nicholas railroad. 

Out of thirty-three cement factories existing in Rus- 
sia only fourteen are in a position to be used, but on 
account of the shortage of fuel none of these factories 
are working at present. The reserves of cement amount 
to 1,080,000 tons, whereas formerly the annual produc- 
tion amounted to 18,000,000 tons. If fifty per cent of 
the present actual annual production of coal were used 
for the production of cement, only three factories could 
work, thus producing the annual output of 1,600,000 
tons. These facts are upon the authority of the official 

3 Severnaya Communa, March 15, 1919. 



174 THE NEW WORLD 

Bolshevist newspaper, Economy and Finance, of No- 
vember 12, 1919. 

The economic organization of Russia has completely 
broken down under the baneful influence of commu- 
nism. Were it not for the fact that the Bolshevist gov- 
ernment inherited large stores of everything from the 
reign of Czar Nicholas conditions would be even worse 
than they are. The fact of importance is that commu- 
nism decreased production, for this is the test of the 
practicability of the scheme. I quote two Bolshevist 
authorities : 

There is an unprecedented decline of productivity in mills 
and factories. We must combat this resolutely. (Severnaya 
Communa.) 

Organized labor has never been accused of being cap- 
italistic. From the accredited representatives of union 
labor of Russia comes a highly illuminating appeal: 

To W. A. Appleton, President, December 12, 1919. 

International Federation of Trade Unions. 
Statement by the Workers' Delegation — Ijevski and 
Vodkinska Factories. 
This delegation, which arrived at London on December 6, 
1919, has by general consent of the workers of Ijevski and 
Vodkinska Factories, and by the resolution passed at the sit- 
ting of the Ural's Trade Union on June 15th, the following 
mission to perform: 

To inform the citizens of England concerning the present 
condition of Russia and the Russian working class. 

We come forward as non-party representatives of working 
men, and we do not wish to involve ourselves in English 
party politics. We turn to you in the first place as the repre- 



FAILURE TO SOCIALIZE INDUSTRY 175 

sentatives of a non-party labor organization, and ask you to 
give us your co-operation in the fulfillment of our mission. 
We have up to now given no interview to the English 
press. We wish to declare hereby that we are ready to an- 
swer all direct questions, both in meetings and the press, and 
if necessary, to answer them before the Bureau of the Inter- 
national Federation of Trade Unions at Amsterdam. 

In submitting this statement we appeal in the name of 
justice to international democracy. 
(Signed) 

Ypovalov, President 

Vodkinska Union Metal Workers. 
Strumelov, Member of 

Directorate of Metal Workers' Union, 
Perm. 
Jandermov, Vice-President 

Federated Trade Unions of Urals. 
Menshekov, Member of 

Executive Committee Ijevski Union of 
Organization. 

The following supplementary statement is made by 
the delegate from the Vodkinska workers : 

The causes of the rising against the Soviet rule by Ijevski 
and Vodkinska peasants and workmen it is my wish to ex- 
plain: 

People reading and hearing the thunderous logic and bla- 
tant rhetoric of Lenin, Trotzky and their associates, but 
unfamiliar with the actual state of affairs in Russia, are not 
in a position to understand it. They may think that the 
party which is fighting against Soviet rules, as established by 
Lenin and Trotzky, consists of the bourgeoisie and the old 
reactionary group. To emerge from this illusion it is neces- 
sary to master the history of the situation. It is necessary 
to listen to the voice of the real Russia. 



176 THE NEW WORLD 

We recognize that Russia economically lags behind other 
nations; that Russian manufacturers are in their early stages 
of development, and from economic laws it is certain that 
where there are not manufactures there can be no working 
classes, consequently there can be no bourgeoisie. 

In Russia, out of 180,000,000 inhabitants, 150,000,000 are 
peasants and about 20,000,000 are workers. Then we hear 
the Bolsheviki talk about "power for the peasants and work- 
ers." But is that what they have brought about ? No. The 
voice of real Russia proclaims to all the world the following 
story : 

The Bolsheviki established their power by bayonets and 
broke the strength of peasants and workers, broke the elected 
assembly, which was on the principle of universal, direct- 
equal and secret voting — broke all the societies of a demo- 
cratic nature, such as the Zemstvos, that self-governing 
body elected by universal, direct and secret voting. The Bol- 
sheviki, ruthlessly, like autocratic gendarmes, killed all labor, 
political and socialistic organizations, throttled the labor 
press, as for instance, its organ of the Social Democrats and 
Social Republicans, and finally the Bolsheviki established by 
degree the dawn of their own Czarist socialism. 

Who split up the reserve funds of the trade unions ? The 
Bolsheviki. Who split up the trade unions as a class? By 
whose orders were, all strikes put down by force of arms 
and amid plentiful executions? It was the Bolsheviki who 
broke the workmen's co-operative societies and converted 
their shops into communal stores. The Bolsheviki promised 
the Russian people bread, peace, and freedom. 

Actually, in place of peace they gave civil war, which 
destroyed all manufacture and stained every side with blood; 
in place of freedom, prison, exile, and the shooting party; 
in place of bread, famine, and the grave. So it was, that 
having drunk to the full the cup of humiliation and tasted 
this red-bayonet socialism, Ijevski and Vodkinska recognized 



FAILURE TO SOCIALIZE INDUSTRY 177 

that further life of this sort was impossible, and though with- 
out arms, and armed only with the armor of right, with* only 
their blistered hands to fight with, united in spirit, to a man 
they rose against the oppressors, and by virtue of their 
strength of will, snatched the rifles from the hands of the 
"Red" Guard and began the battle for citizens' rights and 
the freedom of the Russian people. 

The reader asks why Bolshevism holds out so long if the 
peasants and workers are fighting against it. This is the 
true answer: All the world knows that the Bolsheviki con- 
cluded peace with Wilhelm, disarmed the Russian army, and 
with the Germans, began to shoot down the workers and 
peasants. All the time their chief power has rested in Mag- 
yars, Chinese, Letts, Czar's gendarmes, capital criminals, 
and communists. 

All these dark forces, armed to the teeth, are driving 
under threat of death, father against son, brother against 
brother, and the Russian people, who bore the first brunt of 
the mailed fist of Teutonic junkerdom and in the first place 
saved France and all Europe from destruction's bite, now 
bleeds in the struggle against it, and looks to allied demo- 
cracy all over the world, in its turn, to save Russia. 

(Signed) Ypovalov. 

A supplementary statement by the member for Ijevski 
factory follows: 

We, Ijevski and Vodkinska workers, who raised the stand- 
ard and took arms against Bolshevism are anxious to give 
our story to English workers and to English newspapers. 
We wish to explain the reason which led to our revolt, for 
we cannot at present understand why part of the English 
Press regards the Bolsheviki as the friends of trade union- 
ism. We Russian workers have found that the Bolsheviki 
turned out enemies to trade unionism as big as the capital- 



178 THE NEW WORLD 

ists of the Czar's time. We are ready to give you details of 
the horrors which we workers have lived through under the 
regime of their despotic sway. We will give you the story 
of the decline of Russian productivity, and with it the eclipse 
of the industrial classes. 

We took up arms against our oppressors in the name of 
the duty which we owe to Labor's flag, for which hundreds 
and thousands of its loyal defenders have died in our part 
of the world. 

(Signed) Menshekov. 



Trotzky, in confessing the failure of the Bolshevist 
program successfully to socialize industry, charged it to 
the "sabotage of the intellectuals." By this he meant 
that the Bolsheviki drove the specialists, the technicians 
and managers of industry, out of business; that the 
workingmen, not having the training for places requir- 
ing special skill and knowledge, were unable efficiently 
and successfully to carry on the business. Having 
pointed out the cause of the failure, he presented a 
remedy. He said with truth that the intellectuals have 
the benefit of special training, education, and experience, 
and that shops and factories filled with machines, mate- 
rial, and workingmen, cannot be run without the skilled 
manager, the intelligent, experienced foreman. But 
Trotzky has not lost faith in the plan of industrial com- 
munism, nor has he lost belief in the theory that it can 
be made tor increase production. He says that the bour- 
geoisie, when forced by the state into the factories, do not 
work with the same ambition to make success as they 
did when they had a personal-profit interest. This he 



FAILURE TO SOCIALIZE INDUSTRY 179 

calls the "sabotage of the intellectuals." To eliminate 
this difficulty he proposes that the Bolshevist government 
turn its attention to the education of the working men, 
provide technical schools and schools teaching business 
management, and in this manner create competent man- 
agers and technical experts. It is Trotzky's opinion that 
workingmen educated to be experts and managers would 
retain their class sympathy and their interest in the suc- 
cess of the class struggle. 

The Bolsheviki are strong on theory. Trotzky fails 
to take into consideration some simple fundamental 
truths. He fails to reckon with human nature as it is. 
He thinks of it as it should be. Let us take an example 
which illustrates and emphasizes the difference between 
Bolshevist theory and practical experience. Let us sup- 
pose that the Bolshevist government establish schools 
for the purpose of training men in business management 
and for technical work. Then enroll in these schools 
workingmen who, at the time of their entrance in the 
school, are entirely "class conscious" and ardent commu- 
nists. They attend school for several years. The time 
spent there and the education given to the men make a 
change in them. They become conscious of the power 
of education, of their fitness for a better class of work. 
Education gives them a sense of superiority, and I do 
not mean superiority in the arrogant or boastful sense. 
The trained mind is conscious of training. It is a more 
ambitious mind. The men are not less human. They 
want from education its material benefits. They feel the 
sense of leadership. When they graduate, these men 



180 THE NEW WORLD 

leave the door of the school different men in aspirations 
and ambitions. Take them back to the factories and in 
nine cases out of ten it will be found that education has 
made managers, foremen, experts out of them, and that 
they are class conscious but of a different class, not the 
one they came from when they entered school but the 
class they graduated into through education. There will 
be some few whose great idealism will inspire them to 
go back into the shop and work for the common good. 
Such men are the exceptions to the rule. The majority 
will insist upon recognition of their greater skill and 
demand compensation for it. Their thought is "Now 
that I am skilled and educated, now that I take on my 
shoulders a large and more important responsibility, I 
am entitled to increased consideration and a larger re- 
ward. Why should I be put on the level with the men 
who haven't the capacity I have and who do not shoulder 
the same responsibility I do?" 

Trotzky's plan reminds me of the intensely maternal 
hen, who after practicing on white door knobs, discov- 
ered some eggs in a barn, and with great enthusiasm 
began to set. In the course of time her patience and 
motherhood were rewarded. As soon as her brood was 
able to walk she took them on an excursion to the river 
bank to give them a worm banquet. When she reached 
the water edge she was startled at seeing her young ones 
paddle into the water and without even so much as a 
good-by, swim off. 

The test of the communist theory is whether or not, 
when put into practice, it increases production. The 



FAILURE TO SOCIALIZE INDUSTRY 181 

theory of the communist is that it will increase produc- 
tion by inducing men to work because they are their own 
bosses and are guaranteed an equal share in the produc- 
tion. The practical fact which upsets the theory is that 
human beings are moved to work by their desire for 
gain. Human beings have this strain in their blood. It 
is organic ; it is a part of them. I do not refer to greed. 
I mean that all experience proves that human beings are 
individualists. The average man thinks of himself and 
his interests a dozen times to the one time he thinks of 
the general interest of society. This is true even of the 
man who devotes thought and has much concern for the 
common good. He may be generous to a fault, but he 
wants to acquire and then give it. Competition, not- 
withstanding all the theories of the idealists to the con- 
trary, quickens life, stimulates men to work, makes for 
progress. Everywhere about us we see in our daily ex- 
periences evidence of this fact. Life is a gamble in the 
sense that everything is uncertain; life itself is uncer- 
tain. No man can plan or program his to-morrow. It 
is the effort of man to provide against unfavorable con- 
tingencies, to compete with chance, which makes him 
basically a competitor with every other man. 

Take the poker game. Men who play the "national" 
game will tell you that they play for the fun of the 
game, not for the money, and they are speaking the 
truth. Make an experiment, play a game for matches 
instead of for money, and observe the effect upon the 
ambition and skill of the players. Maybe it should not 
be so, but we are not dealing with "should not be's." 



182 THE NEW WORLD 

The life problem must be handled from the point of 
view of things as they are. 

While the theory of communism is beautifully ideal, 
human beings are not. The ugly fact is that selfishness 
is at the bottom of nearly all personal endeavor. It 
stimulates men to work. It is the will to work. 

Two years' experience with communism in Russia 
proves that the experiment is a failure. It disorganized 
life, demoralized people and diminished production. In- 
stead of curing poverty, it made poverty universal. In- 
stead of removing the cancer spot — Poverty — from the 
body of civilization, communism is causing decreased 
production, is making the entire social body a cancer. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE ABUSE OF POWER 

Soviet government has been a costly experiment. 
Russia is almost succumbing to the treatment; notwith- 
standing the success of the "Red" army in the field, con- 
ditions in Russia are growing from bad to worse. The 
Soviet leaders are drunk with power and have conducted 
themselves in the manner of drunken men. Reckless 
waste, intolerant officiousness, greed for spoils, are the 
record they have made. The Soviet government is a 
political machine, and communism has not changed its 
character or its methods. It has simply given it larger 
opportunities for spoils. Greater security in its corrup- 
tion. 

The Socialdemocratin prints some interesting extracts 
from the Bolshevist budget for 1919. 

According to this newspaper, the revenue for the first 
half of 1919 amounted to 20,350,000,000 rubles, and the 
expenditures to 50,703,000,000 rubles, making the deficit 
for the first six months of 1919 of Soviet Russia the 
enormous sum of over 30,000,000,000 rubles. The ac- 
quisition of foodstuffs and necessaries of life has created 
a deficit of 5,000,000,000 rubles, and the railways 4,500,- 
000,000 rubles; thus a half year of Bolshevist rule cost 
more than Russia's total outlay on the whole war. 

183 



184 THE NEW WORLD 

The report of the Bolshevik Nemensky on the audit 
of the central Soviet commission in charge of all textile 
factories, which appeared in the Sovietskaya Ekonomich- 
eskaya Zhizn of February 25, 1919, follows: 

The finance credit division of the central Soviet commis- 
sion received up to February I, 1919, 3,400,000,000 rubles. 
There was no control of the expenditure of moneys. Money 
was advanced to factories immediately upon demand and 
there were cases when money was forwarded to factories 
which did not exist. From July I, to December 31, 1918, 
the central Soviet commission advanced on account of prod- 
ucts, to be received, 1,348,619,000 rubles. The value of the 
goods securing these advances received up to January 1, 
1919, was only 143,716,000 rubles. The negligent way of 
doing business may be particularly observed from the way 
the central Soviet commission purchased supplies of raw 
wool. Up to January 1, 1919, only 129,803 poods of wool 
was acquired, whereas the annual requirement is figured at 
3,500,000 poods. 

The tremendous staff of officials (about 6,000 persons) 
employed by the commission are in the majority of cases 
doing nothing useful. It appears that there were on the 
payroll of this institution 125 persons who actually were not 
in the service at all, but who were receiving salaries. There 
were cases where the same persons received salaries twice for 
the same period. The efficiency of the officials is negligible 
to a striking degree. 

Such Soviet institutions, Nemensky says at the end 
of his report, are a beautiful example of deadening bu- 
reaucracy and must be liquidated. 

It would seem that the idealists in charge of the com- 
munist program in Russia are experts in "graft-ring ,, 



THE ABUSE OF POWER 185 

methods. Payroll padding is among their accomplish- 
ments. An innocent bystander might suspect some of 
these Soviet officials of having a leaning toward private 
property, particularly when it is in easy reach. 

Probably it is fair to the Bolsheviki to state their situa- 
tion in their own words. The bulletin of the central 
executive committee of the Soviets, No. 15 (1919), 
announces : 

We have created extraordinary commissaries and extraor- 
dinary commissions without number. All of these are, to a 
lesser or greater degree, only mischief-makers. 

The toiling population see in the squandering of money 
right and left by the commissaries and in their indecent 
loudness and profanity during their trips through the dis- 
tricts, the complete absence of party discipline. 

People's Commissar Lunacharsky, according to the 
Severnayna Kommuna of March 23, 1919, declared: 

The upper stratum of the Soviet rule is becoming detached 
from the masses, and the blunders of the communist work- 
ers are becoming more and more frequent. These latter, 
according to statements by workmen, treat the masses in a 
high-handed manner and are very generous with threats 
and repressions. 

The Soviet machine has had its "run in" with the 
workers. The factory committees have been bulldozed. 
The Soviets have been brutal in their treatment of the 
proletariat. 

'The struggle between the Soviets and the committee 
of factory workers is an ordinary occurrence/' according 



186 THE NEW WORLD 

to the Bolshevist newspaper Ekononricheskaya Zhizn of 
April, 1 91 9. 

The Soviets have the whip hand in their controversy 
with the workers; they are the government and the 
*'Red" army backs their decrees. There is a final court 
of settlement for all disagreements between the Soviets 
and the workers. It is the "wall" — and the firing squad. 
The right to strike is denied the workers. Many of those 
who dared strike have paid with their lives. The 
workers are without recourse when commanded by the 
Soviet. Whether or not they were the slaves of the 
machines before communism came, it is certain they are 
now the slaves of the Soviets. Even as slaves of the 
machines and the capitalists who owned the machines, 
they had the right to strike for their rights. The Soviets 
deprived them of this right. 

The Bolshevik Sosnovsky, reporting on the condition 
in the Tver province, in the Izvestia of the provincial 
Soviet March 9, 1919, wrote: "The local communist 
Soviet workers behaved themselves, with rare exceptions, 
in a disgusting manner. Misuse of power is going on 
constantly." 

The conduct of the Soviet commissaries is a general 
scandal in Russia and is described in No. 12, January 
18, 1919, of the Izvestia of the provincial Soviets : 

The commissaries were going through the Czaritzin 
county in sumptuous carriages, driven by three and often 
by six horses. A great array of adjutants and a large suite 
accompanied these commissaries, and an imposing number 
of trunks followed along. They made exorbitant demands 



THE ABUSE OF POWER 187 

upon the toiling population, coupled with assaults and bru- 
tality; their way of squandering money right and left is 
particularly characteristic. In some houses the commissa- 
ries gambled away and spent on intoxicants large sums. The 
hard-working population looked upon these orgies as com- 
plete demoralization and failure of duty to the world revo- 
lution. 

These pen pictures of life in Russia under the Soviet 
regime are not furnished by the enemies of Bolshevism; 
they are the complaints of Bolshevist leaders. Do we 
need a greater warning of the menace of Bolshevism? 

A BOLSHEVIST'S DYING CONFESSION 

Nicholas Lopoushkin gave his life to the cause of 
Russian freedom. For almost a quarter of a century, he 
stood up under the tortures of Siberia; solitary confine- 
ment and the drudgery of the salt mines did not break 
the spirit of revolution in him. He was an active leader 
in the Bolshevist revolution. At its conclusion he was 
made president of the Soviet in his native city of Kirsa- 
nov, in the province of Tambov. Eighteen months of 
Bolshevist terror did what twenty-four years of penal 
exile failed to do. It shattered his dream, broke his 
faith, and maddened him with its horrors. He tried to 
stem the tide of blood and suffering which Bolshevist 
methods turned loose on his country. He dared to call 
a halt on the program of violence. His colleagues 
charged him with being lukewarm to the cause, with lack- 
ing revolutionary energy. Knowing that these complaints 
had been sent to Moscow, he addressed, on April 24, 



i88 THE NEW WORLD 

1919, the following letter to the national Soviet of peo- 
ple's commissars : 

Comrades: My colleagues of the Kirsanov Soviet are 
writing to tell you that I am no longer fit to hold the posi- 
tion of president of the Soviet, that I am a counter-revolu- 
tionary, that I have lost my nerve, and am a traitor to our 
cause. Perhaps they are right — I only wish I knew. In 
writing this letter I have no wish to justify my behavior or 
exonerate myself in your eyes. I am too old a servant of the 
Revolution to plead at the bar before men who were not 
born when I was serving my first sentence in a Czarist 
prison. I think also that my past speaks for itself and that 
no one of my comrades will have the audacity to accuse me 
of insincerity or want of stability, or of making a hasty 
decision. After twenty-four years spent in exile, in close 
confinement, in every kind of revolutionary work and in 
different form of expiation for the same, I escaped abroad, 
and became an ardent Bolshevik and a sincere 'believer in 
the doctrines of Lenin and his party. But of my late expe- 
riences in Petrograd and Moscow, whence I have just re- 
turned, coupled with the horrors of the ghastly nightmare 
of the sort of existence which I found on my arrival in my 
native town, have combined to shake my faith in the suit- 
ability of Bolshevism for our country, and as a consequence, 
in the logic and stability of Bolshevist theories and tenets 
in general, which we have signally and dismally failed to 
prove. Speaking frankly, we are, in my opinion, on the 
brink of a terrible disaster, which will leave its imprint not 
only upon socialism but upon our nation for centuries, a 
disaster which will give our decendants the right to regard 
us Bolsheviki at the best as crazy fanatics, and at the worst 
as foul imposters and ghastly muddlers, who murdered and 
tortured a nation for the sake of an unattainable Utopian 
theory, and who, in our madness, sold our birthright amongst 
the people for less than the proverbial mess of pottage. 



THE ABUSE OF POWER 189 

All around me, wherever I look, I see unmistakable signs 
of our approaching- doom and yet no one responds to my ap- 
peals for help; my voice is as the voice of one crying in 
the wilderness. In the towns I have just come from, chronic 
hunger, murder, and the license and libertinage of the cri- 
minal elements, who undoubtedly hold numerous executive 
positions under our Soviets, have reduced the population to 
the level of mere brute beasts who drag out a dull semi-con- 
scious existence devoid of joy to-day and without hope for 
the morrow. Surely this should not be the result of the 
earthly paradise which the Soviets were to introduce into 
our lives. 

Everywhere people are living under the dread of famine, 
death, torture, and terror, everywhere groaning in utter 
misery. My countrymen, whom I love, and whom I have 
hoped to assist, to render happy above all nations, look at 
me either with the mute uncomprehending eyes of brutes, 
condemned to slaughter or else with the red eyes of fury and 
vengeance. It is these latter whom I fear; they are so cer- 
tain that we Bolsheviki are in the wrong, that as soon as 
they can do so without fear of punishment, they will kill me, 
in the firm conviction that they are thereby doing their coun- 
try a service. It is terrible, and there must be something 
wrong somewhere. While our brethren in the big cities 
are starving, the whole population in our district is engaged 
in distilling pure alcohol from surplus grain in their pos- 
session, grain which we cannot find, and which no amount of 
threat or punishment will ever make them give up. 

Speculation is rife amongst even the most humble inhabit- 
ants in the country villages, who have forced a lump of 
sugar up to four rubles and a pound of salt up to forty 
rubles. And the Bolshevist militia and Soviets, when called 
upon to deal with various infringement of the Bolshevist 
decrees, either try to get out of taking action altogether or 
else pretend that there is insufficient evidence to commit for 



190 THE NEW WORLD 

trial. As a matter of fact these men, too, are tired of the 
position of outcasts and lepers amongst their fellows, which 
service with the Bolsheviki imposes on them and would 
gladly give up their official status, were it not for the fact 
that they have now cut themselves off from all return. If 
they fall singly or even in couples into the hands of the vil- 
lagers, they are always murdered. No member of the "Red" 
Guard dares risk his life by returning to his native village, 
where his father will be the first to kill him. I maintain 
that there must be something wrong with a regime which 
has aroused such universal hatred, in such a comparatively 
short time and amongst whom? Amongst the very class it 
strove to uplift, to free, to benefit, and to render happy I 
have been closely connected with this region all my life, 
and it is no exaggeration to say that the peasant population 
never felt one hundredth part of the hatred and hostility 
towards the representatives of the czarist regime and the 
gendarmes that it does toward us members of the Soviets and 
our militia Our aims have been misunderstood, our actions 
have been misinterpreted, and once we have failed to win the 
support of the very masses we set out to save, we may as 
well confess that our failure has been complete. There is 
a curse upon our party. Ruin and desolation follow in our 
train. The innocent blood of thousands cries out for ven- 
geance against us. Our doom is fast approaching. Coun- 
ter-revolution stalks openly amongst us, the gaunt spectre 
of utter famine and complete nakedness mocks us in the 
towns and villages alike. But worst of all is the conscious- 
ness of failure; we, the would-be liberators of the world, 
who are execrated openly by the populace ; we, who can see 
no safety in the grim looks and expectant glances of our 
guards ; we, whose names are used by the dregs of the town 
as the foulest epithets; we, who set out so confidently to 
climb to the sun and have ended by falling into the cesspool 
in our own backyards. I was always against the "Red 



THE ABUSE OF POWER 191 

Terror" and bitterly shall we pay for it. Not thus did we 
plan in Paris, Geneva, and Luzerne; not for this did we 
swelter and freeze alternately in czarist prisons in Siberia 
or rot in salt mines. This is not the end we had in view 
when we risked our lives, breaking our prisons and traveling 
illegally across the whole of Russia, to pass the western 
frontier. Then we were always upheld in our weak mo- 
ments, in our privations, and in our sufferings, by the 
thought of our glorious cause, by picturing to ourselves the 
day when we should free this great and glorious nation of 
ours and take our place as old and tried revolutionary vet- 
erans at the head of our countrymen in their triumphant 
march towards peace, progress and plenty. This is what 
we visioned and the actuality is what I have already de- 
scribed. I feel tired and depressed. I know that the "Red 
Terror" was a mistake, and I have a terrible suspicion that 
our cause has been betrayed at the moment of its uttermost 
realization. 

Yours in fraternal greeting, 

N. Lopoushkin. 

This was his last act for the cause of free Russia; 
after finishing the letter he committed suicide. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 

The Bolshevist government is not a national govern- 
ment. It has never pretended to be a scheme of govern- 
ment for Russia alone, it has openly avowed its purpose 
to destroy the existing order of society by inciting the 
workers of the world to tear down the governments of 
their own countries, and establish a dictatorship of the 
proletariat in which the nations of the world are to be 
but units in an International. Russia is the nucleus. 
According to the Bolsheviki, patriotism is a means of 
exploitation and must be relegated to the scrap heap of 
superstitions. 

Lenin, at Petrograd in 1918, declared that "the chief 
task to which we set ourselves at the very beginning of 
the war was to turn the imperialistic war into' a civil 
war." Lenin knows no right except might; his one 
weapon is force. For over two years he has tried with 
force to break down the will of the Russian people, and 
compel them to accept communism. Lenin has not been 
contented with beating the Russian people into submis- 
sion, his plan is to force communism upon the world. 
He has branded all existing governments as vile, and 
commanded the workers everywhere to arise and seize 

192 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 193 

the governments of their own lands, calling upon the men 
to be strong of heart and not be afraid of blood. He has 
denounced political action, scoffed at parliamentary 
methods and decried peaceful voting. His command to 
the workers is: "Arm yourselves and disarm the bour- 
geoisie." He leaves no room for doubt as to the meaning 
of his command. He wrote the aim and object of Bol- 
shevism into the Soviet constitution when he defined the 
fundamental task as being the "Victory of socialism in 
all lands." He blazoned his war cry on the coat of arms 
of the Soviet government in these words : "Workers of 
the world, unite." 

Bucharin, the leading Bolshevist propagandist, Chair- 
man of the Third International, set forth the purpose 
of the Communists. 

"The program of the Communist party (the Bolshe- 
viki) is the program of the liberation of the proletariat 
not only in one country, it is the program of the libera- 
tion of the proletariat of all countries, because it is the 
program of international revolution. The overthrow of 
imperialistic government by means of armed revolt is 
the road to the international dictatorship of the working 
class." 

In his New Year's message for 1920, Lenin boldly as- 
serted: "There will be Soviets at Berlin, Washington, 
Paris, and London. Soviet authority will be supreme 
throughout the world." 

In May, 1919, the Bolshevist authorities officially pro- 
claimed : "Long live civil war, the only just war, in which 
the oppressed class fights its oppressors." 



194 THE NEW WORLD 

The Bolsheviki have a single foreign policy. It is to 
create strife among the people of the world, develop what 
they call "class consciousness," crystallize hate, and pro- 
mote the organization of civil wars. This is preliminary 
and prepares the way for the world revolution. Lenin 
has repeatedly said and written that the Bolshevist gov- 
ernment in Russia cannot succeed, if the present govern- 
ments of the world are permitted to exist. These are 
Lenin's words : 

There is no doubt that the socialist revolution in Europe 
must come and will come. All our hopes for the definite 
triumph of socialism are based upon this conviction. 

The plan to bring about world revolution has been 
carefully worked out. Propaganda has carried the mes- 
sage to every corner of the world. Bolshevist gold has 
been used unsparingly. Moscow is the capital of the 
world movement to bring about the upheaval. A proc- 
lamation was issued on February 24, 1919, calling 
upon the proletariat of the world to send delegates to a 
Communist International at Moscow. This was to be the 
first organization of the new world government. It was 
financed, organized and controlled by the Bolshevist dic- 
tators. The call for the Third International defined the 
groups in the various countries that were eligible for 
representation in the Third International. In America 
it invited the Socialist Party (especially the group repre- 
sented by Debs), the I. W: W., and the Socialist Labor 
Party to send delegates. 

The followers of Debs were honored with first place 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 195 

among those considered fit to have a voice in the Third 
International. Debs, who on four different occasions, 
was the Socialist candidate for President of the United 
States, wrote in the "Appeal to Reason/' September 2, 
191 1 : "Let us marshal our forces and develop our power 
for the revolt. ... A few men may be needed who are 
not afraid to die. . . . Let us swear that we will fight to 
the last ditch, that we will strike blow for blow, that we 
will use every weapon at our command and that we will 
never surrender/' 

Victor Berger, the first and only Socialist congress- 
man, in a signed editorial in the Social Democratic 
Herald, July 31, 1909, says : 

In view of the plutocratic law-making of the present 
day, it is easy to predict that the safety and hope of this 
country will finally lie in one direction only — that of a 
violent and bloody revolution. Therefore, I say, each of 
the 500,000 Socialist voters and of the 2,000,000 working- 
men who instinctively incline our way, should . . . have a 
good rifle and the necessary rounds of ammunition in his 
home and be prepared to back up his ballot with his bullet 
if necessary. 

The I. W. W. have never denied that they seek to 
destroy the labor union movement in America, and in 
its place build a single union, and that the object of one 
great union is not industrial, but political, and that the 
aim and purpose of such a union is to seize the govern- 
ment. The International Workers of the World is a 
mobilization plan in the guise of a labor union. Its rec- 
ord in the United States is distinguished by violence and 



196 THE NEW WORLD 

terror. The I. W. W. are made preferred citizens of the 
United States by the Bolsheviki, and because of their 
eminent qualifications are invited to become "world citi- 
zens" in the dictatorship of the proletariat. 

The Socialist Labor Party, the third group asked to 
represent America in the Third International, is made up 
of "Left- Wingers" ; and the "Left-Wingers" in the So- 
cialist Party are those who favor a "Red" baptism to 
cleanse the world of the sins of the pale Socialists, who 
prefer political action and peaceful voting to the torch, 
the bullet, and the bomb. 

The call of the Third International is the declaration 
of the dictatorship, and in it we find announced the essen- 
tials of their program. 

1. The present is the period of destruction and the 
crushing of the capitalistic system of the whole world, and 
it will be a catastrophe for the whole European culture, 
should capitalism with all its insoluble contradictions not 
be done away with. 

2. The aim of the proletariat must now be immediately 
to conquer power. To conquer power means to destroy 
the governmental apparatus of the bourgeoisie and to or- 
ganize a new proletarian governmental apparatus. 

3. The new apparatus of the government must express 
the dictatorship of the working class (and in certain places 
even the dictatorship of the half-proletariat in the villages, 
that is, the peasant proletariat), that is, to persist in the 
systematic suppression of the exploiting classes and be the 
means of expropriating them. No false bourgeois demo- 
cracy — this treacherous form of the power of a financial 
oligarchy with its mere external equality — but a proletarian 
democracy able to realize the freedom of the working 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 197 

masses; no parliamentarism, but the self-government of the 
masses through' their elective organs ; no capitalistic bureau- 
cracy, but governing organs which have been appointed by 
the masses themselves, through the real participation of 
these masses in the governing of the country and the social- 
istic work of reorganization — such, ought to be the type of 
the proletarian state. The Soviet power or a corresponding 
organization of government is its concrete expression. 

4. The dictatorship of the proletariat must be the occa- 
sion for the immediate expropriation of capital and the eli- 
mination of the private right of owning the means of pro- 
duction, through making them common public property. The 
socialization (meaning doing away with private property 
and making it the property of the proletarian state, which 
is managed by the workers on a socialistic basis) of the 
large-scale industries and the central bodies organized by 
the same, including the banks, the confiscation of the capital- 
istic agricultural production, the monopolization of large- 
scale commerce; the socialization of the large buildings in 
the towns and in the country; the establishment of a work- 
ingmen's government and the concentration of the economic 
functions in the hands of the organs of the proletarian dic- 
tatorship — are the most essential aims of the day. 

5. In order to protect the socialist revolution against ex- 
ternal and internal enemies and to assist the fighting prole- 
tariats of other countries, it becomes necessary entirely to 
disarm the bourgeoisie and its agents and to arm the prole- 
tariat. 

6. The world situation demands immediate and as perfect 
as possible relations between the different groups of the 
revolutionary proletariat and a complete alliance of all the 
countries in which the revolution has already succeeded. 

7. The most important method is the mass action of the 
proletariat, including armed struggle against the govern- 
ment power of capitalists. 



198 THE NEW WORLD 

The Third International met at Moscow from March 2 
to March 6, 1919. It adopted a manifesto which was 
signed by Lenin and Trotzky, the leading spirits of the 
Congress. This Manifesto has been distributed all over 
the world. In one particular at least, it can be com- 
mended, and that is, for its astonishing frankness. It 
•boldly boasts that, its message is revolution, and that 
its mission is to organize, and mobilize a "Red" army in 
every country in the world. Under the caption, "The 
Way to Victory," the Manifesto reads: 

The revolutionary era compels the proletariat to make 
use of the means of battle which will concentrate its entire 
energies, namely, mass action with its logical resultant, di- 
rect conflict with the governmental machinery in open com- 
bat. All other methods, such as revolutionary use of bour- 
geois parliamentarism, will be of only secondary signifi- 
cance. 

The Manifesto declares that the First International 
foresaw the future development and pointed the way; 
that the Second International gathered together and or- 
ganized the proletariat; that the Third International is 
the International of open mass action, of revolution, the 
international of deeds. The work of the Third Inter- 
national is mapped out in the Manifesto in these words : 

The task of the International Communist Party is now to 
overthrow this order (all present governments) and to 
erect in its place the structure of the Socialist world order. 
We urge the workingmen and women of all countries to 
unite under the communist banner, the emblem under which 
the first great victories have already been won. 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 199 

Proletarians of all lands ! In the war against imperialis- 
tic barbarity, against monarchy, against the privileged 
classes, against the bourgeois state and bourgeois property, 
against all forms and varieties of social and national oppres- 
sion — unite ! 

Under the standard of the Workingmen's Councils, under 
the banner of the Third International, in the revolutionary 
struggle for power and the dictatorship of the proletariat, 
proletarians of all countries, unite ! 

The Communist International in its appeal "to the toil- 
ers of the world" says : 

The communist revolution grows. The Soviet republics 
in Russia, Hungary, and Bavaria report daily what has 
been accomplished. Germany is shaking with civil war. A 
revolution is taking place in Turkey. In Austria and Czecho- 
slovakia the workmen are gathering under the glorious flag 
of socialism. In France enormous demonstrations have 
started; in Italy the struggle boils and the workmen call for 
a dictatorship of the proletariat. In England strikes have 
taken on the character of an epidemic. In America the 
working class come out on the street; in Japan the workmen 
are agitated. In the neutral countries, like Holland and 
Switzerland, hundreds of thousands of workmen recently 
took part in a political strike. The workmen of all coun- 
tries have understood that the decisive moment has come. 
Soviets, by this you will conquer. 

The workmen know that only a dictatorship of the prole- 
tariat can save humanity from that bloody horror into which 
the bourgeoisie in all countries has plunged it. The work' 
men know that the proletarian dictatorship will lead to a 
triumph of socialism. There is no middle course. Either 
the bloody dictatorship of executioners-general, who will 
kill hundreds of thousands of workmen and the peasants in 
the name of the interests of a band of bankers, or the dicta- 



200 THE NEW WORLD 

torship of the working class, that is of the overwhelming 
majority of toilers which will disarm the bourgeoisie, create 
its own "Red" army and free the whole world of slavery. 
Down with the autocracy of czars and kings! 

The Severnaya Kommuna of March 14, 1919, reports 
a speech made by Lenin at the Petrograd Soviet on 
March 12, 1919: 

We can understand the activities of the Council of Peo- 
ple's Commissaries for the last year only if we assess the 
role of the Soviets on the scale of world revolution. Often 
the daily routine of administration and details that could 
not be avoided in the work of construction are pushing 
us to one side and forcing us to forget the greater task of 
world revolution. But only when we assess the role of the 
Soviets on the world scale shall we be able properly to 
handle the details of our internal life and regulate them 
properly. The task of construction depends entirely upon 
how soon revolution will triumph in the more important 
countries of Europe. Only after such a victory shall we be 
able seriously to undertake the work of construction. The 
expert accountants from Berne speak of us as the champions 
of the tactics of violence, but in referring to this they do not 
see what the bourgeoisie is doing in their own countries, 
namely, that it is governing exclusively by violence. 

The Bolshevist government has declared war upon the 
world. In its propaganda it seeks to organize and incite 
the discontented of the world to mob violence. It is a 
propaganda of hate. It has scattered broadcast in the 
soil of unrest poisonous seeds. It has played to every 
prejudice, appealed to the lowest and worst in men. It 
has falsely spoken of the World War as the enterprise 
of capital. It has cunningly charged the terrible shedding 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 201 

of blood to imperialism, not to the imperialism of Prus- 
sia, but to the capitalistic imperialism of the world. It 
has listed the ill effects of the war and placed the blame 
for them not on the war but on the capitalists. It has 
pointed to the poverty and the disorganization of 
the world directly due to the war, and has attributed all 
the tragic results of a four year's struggle with autoc- 
racy, not to the war, but to the imperialism of so-called 
bourgeois governments. It has sought to multiply and 
intensify unrest. It hopes to bring about a world up- 
heaval which will destroy all government except the dis- 
order of the proletariat. 

Lenin insults those who do not accept his gospel of 
world revolution. He is particularly bitter toward so* 
cialists who advocate the ballot and oppose the bayonet. 
Those who favor evolution are the enemies of mankind ; 
those who seek a new order through peace are targets 
for his abuse. 

Writing of the military program of the proletariat re- 
volution, in the November, 1919, number of the Class 
Struggle, Lenin says : 

Whoever in view of this last war is not willing to carry 
out this demand (mass action, open battle, and revolution) 
let him be good enough to refrain from uttering large words 
about the international revolutionary democracy, about the 
social revolution, and about the war against wars. 

Of those who have denounced militarism and de- 
manded disarmament, Lenin wrote: 

What will the proletariat women do to prevent this? 
Merely denounce all wars and militarism? Merely demand 



202 THE NEW WORLD 

disarmament? Never will the women of an oppressed and 
revolutionary class resign themselves to so despicable a 
role. On the contrary, they will say to their sons: "You 
will soon be grown* up. You will have a gun. Take it and 
learn how to use it — not in order to fight your brothers, as is 
the practice in this war of plunder, but in order to fight the 
bourgeoisie of your own country; in order to put an end to 
misery and wars; not by means of kind wishes, but by over- 
throwing and disarming the bourgeoisie." 

The Third International followed the Bolshevist gov- 
ernment in every particular, it deified Lenin and Trotzky, 
it banished Christ and set up Marx as the Omnipotent 
One. It pledged allegiance to the Marxian formula? 
"Religion is the fantastic degradation of human nature." 

Karl Marx, the prophet of Socialism, the Messiah of 
Bolshevism wrote : 

Modern industrial labor, modern subjection to capital . . . 
has stripped him (the proletarian) of every trace of national 
character. Law, morality, religion are to him so many 
bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just 
as many bourgeois interests. . . . the working men have 

NO COUNTRY. 

In Bolshevist Moscow, the meeting place of the Third 
International, the doors of many churches are nailed 
shut, and on the doors of the Cathedral of Vassily Bla- 
genny, and upon the image of the Blessed Virgin, a pos- 
ter announced : "Religion is the opium of the people." 

On his way back from Holland to Russia, Dr. Ouden- 
dijk, the Dutch minister in Petrograd, said: 

I wish to give a solemn warning to the working classes of 
all nations. Bolshevism, I say without exaggeration, is the 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 203 

end of civilization. I have known Russia intimately for 
twenty years, and never have the working classes of Russia 
suffered as they are suffering at the present moment. I 
have never seen or dreamed of the possibility of* such cor- 
ruption, tyranny, and the absence of all semblance of free- 
dom, as there are in Russia at the present moment. 

Mme. Catherine Breshkovsky is the greatest figure in 
the history of the Russian Revolution. She lived for the 
Russian people, and she gave all she had of soul, mind, 
and body, to mothering liberty in Russia. No woman in 
all the history of the world has endured more for a 
people, for their freedom, than this hero woman who 
spent thirty-two of her seventy-three years of life in 
Russian and Siberian prisons. She is the Saint of the 
Revolution, her life embodies the struggle of Russia. In 
the New York Times of January 26, 1919, she said: 

It is a calamity, not alone for Russia but for the world 
at large, to permit Bolshevism to flourish and expand. . . . 

The situation in Russia is deplorable. There is no exag- 
geration in cable dispatches which state that our people are 
literally starving to death. There is bread in some places, 
but not in all. There are no means of transportation; the 
railroads have completely broken down. The people in 
the cities who have some supplies refuse to sell anything. 
We have no clothes, no tools, no instruments, no medicine, 
and little or no food. The stocks in the cooperative stores 
of the villages are almost totally depleted. 

At the start the Bolsheviki had the people with them. 
They promised peace, bread, clothes, education — they gave, 
ah, they gave only money, and that to themselves. We Rus- 
sians are ashamed to say that, rich as our country is, we 
are beggars. 



204 THE NEW WORLD 

The farmers will not sell to the Bolsheviki, consequently 
many of the people of Russia are starving. We have no 
schools, no communication, no transportation, no bread, no 
peace, no industry — Russia is destroyed. Not even paper 
have we to print our alphabet. Consequently, education is 
at a standstill. Even the newspapers have been suppressed, 
except those of the Bolsheviki. You in America know 
nothing save what they tell you; the truth is suppressed. . . . 
The only hope for Russia is the overthrow of the Bolshevist 
forces and the election of a Constituent Assembly. 

BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA CANNOT BE SILENCED 
BY FALSEHOOD 

What is the Russian situation? A minority has seized 
the government and is holding it by force. The great 
majority of the people in Russia are in the position of a 
group of unarmed men in a public meeting confronted 
by a small band of armed terrorists. Radek, a prominent 
Bolshevik, has said : 

I am one who does not deny that there has been terror in 
Russia. The government had to adopt drastic measures to 
keep the hungry, disgruntled, war-weary millions in leash. 

Russia is in the throes of civil war. On the one hand 
we find the "Red" Army, on the other the great mass of 
the people, even though unarmed, rising in protest against 
the dictator. Lenin himself admits that his policy is one 
of coercion by force and violence. In his address to the 
American workingmen he declares : 

In reality a class struggle in revolutionary times has 
always inevitably taken on the form of a civil war, and 
civil war is unthinkable without the worst kind of destruc- 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 205 

tion, without terror and limitations on the form of democ- 
racy. One must be a sickly sentimentalist not to be able 
to see, to understand and appreciate this necessity. The 
class struggle is permanent. We are living in revolutionary 
times. In order to fight the class struggle effectively in such 
times, in order to get power and keep it, civil war, terrorism, 
etc., are necessary. Here is the whole doctrine. 

No less an accurate observer than Gorky interpreted 
the reign of terror in Russia in 1918 : 

In Russia conscience is dead. The Russian people, in fact, 
have lost all sense of right and wrong. "Pillage whatever 
there is to pillage," is the motto of the two groups of Bol- 
sheviki. The "Red" Guard, constituted to attack the coun- 
ter-revolutionists, shoot without right anyone whom they 
suspect. Pillage in all its forms is the only thing which is 
organized. In Petrograd every Bolshevist citizen may 
share in the spoil. 

For the period of revolution 10,000 lynchings have already 
(up to 1918) been accounted for. This is how democracy is 
meting out justice to those who have somehow sinned 
against the new order. 

During the days of the progress of drunkenness, human 
beings were shot down like dogs and the cold-blooded 
destruction of human lives came to be a commonplace, daily 
occurrence. In the newspaper Provda the excesses of the 
drunken mobs are written up as the "provocative acts of the 
bourgeoisie," which is clearly a misrepresentation, the em- 
ployment of a petty phrase which can lead only to the 
further shedding of blood. 

A look, a word, constitutes a crime in the Soviet state ; 
the punishment is frequently death ; the accused is denied 
the right to face his accusers. The language of the Bol- 



206 THE NEW WORLD 

shevist decrees is : "Execute them on the spot." In the 
iirst month of the Lenin government "Extraordinary 
Committees to Combat Counter-revolution, Speculation, 
and Sabotage" were introduced. Immediately the All- 
Russian Extraordinary Commission ordered the "merci- 
less shooting of all opposed to the Soviet government 
by detachments of the Commission at the place of the 
crime." 

This is the Russia of the Third International. These 
are the methods of the men who are appealing to the dis- 
contented. They have invented fine-sounding phrases in 
which are concealed the seeds of death. 

President Wilson summed up our danger in a state- 
ment made in the office of M. Pichon at the Quai D'Or- 
say, Paris, on January 16, 1919, at the conference called 
for a preliminary discussion regarding the situation in 
Russia. The notes of the conversations of the confer- 
ence participated in by Lloyd George, Balfour, Pichon, 
and Baron Sonnino give the substance of the President's 
ideas in the following words : 

The President did not believe that there could be sym- 
pathy anywhere with the brutal aspect of Bolshevism, if it 
were not for the fact of the domination of large vested 
interests in the political and economic world. While it 
might be true that this evil was in process of discussion 
and slow reform, it must be admitted that the general body 
of men has grown impatient at the failure to bring about 
necessary reform. The President stated that there were 
many men who represented large vested interests in the 
United States who saw the necessity for these reforms and 
desired something which should be worked out at the Peace 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 207 

Conference, namely, the establishment of some machinery 
to provide for the opportunity of individuals, greater than 
the world has ever known. Capital and labor in the United 
States are not friends. Still they are not enemies in the 
sense that they are thinking of resorting to physical force 
to settle their differences. But they are distrustful, each 
of the other. Society cannot continue on that plane. On 
the one hand there is a minority possessing capital and 
brains; on the other a majority consisting of the great 
bodies of workers who are essential to the minority, but do 
not trust the minority and feel that the minority will never 
render them their rights. A way must be found to put trust 
and cooperation between these two. 

President Wilson pointed out that the whole world was 
disturbed by the question before the Bolsheviki came into 

power. SEEDS NEED SOIL, AND THE BOLSHEVIST SEEDS FOUND 
A SOIL ALREADY PREPARED FOR THEM. 

Prior to the break-up of 1914 the working people had 
doubts about their ability to> secure free, decent lives 
through political action. The war and depression have 
crystallized these doubts, and the war shock has quick- 
ened eagerness for action. The desire for a change is 
more than agitation. It has grown into determination 
and resolution. Since the war the suspicion of the rad- 
ical wing of the working class that powerful "interests" 
would and could defeat them on the field of political 
action has become a conviction. 

Had the allied governments met the situation with 
candor and common sense they would have used every 
available agency to tear the mask from the Bolshevist 
government and to show the working people of the world 



208 THE NEW WORLD 

the true character of that government and the methods 
used by it. 

The allied governments contented themselves with tell- 
ing* the people that Bolshevism was a bad, dangerous pit- 
fall. It seems to me that it would have been a wiser pol- 
icy to throw the searchlight on the Soviet plan and ex- 
pose it. The Soviet constitution should have been used 
as propaganda. It requires little comment. The story of 
the Third International and its aims and objects should 
have been given to' the world. It was useless to fight 
falsehood with abuse, fire with fire. We should have 
fought fire with water, propaganda with truth, cunning 
with frankness. A plan should have been devised to 
bring the truth about this evil home to men and women. 
The people of the world are sane and democratic. They 
know a danger when they see it, and if they had been 
given a chance to know and see the danger of the "Red 
peril" they would have shunned it as .they avoid a con- 
tagious disease. When the "flu" epidemic broke upon 
the world, the pages of the newspapers told over and 
over again the danger of contagion from sputum and 
droppings, and the people speedily accepted the warning. 
We have had conflicting comment about Bolshevism, but 
little plain truth. It has been characterized and con- 
demned. It should«have been explained. President Wil- 
son once remarked that we in America in discussing pub- 
lic problems generate too much heat and not enough 
light. 

The working people have observed that a portion of 
the press previously allied with the "interests" and 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 209 

against the rights of the people thundered out most sav- 
agely against the Bolshevist government. This class of 
papers denounced Bolshevism, but gave little space to the 
calm, cool, plain statement of the truth about it or its 
methods. Such papers were as yellow in their conser- 
vatism as the Bolsheviki were "red" in their propaganda. 
The newspapers of this class had lost the confidence 
of the workers. Every time such papers violently abused 
the Bolsheviki, it reacted upon the workers and strength- 
ened their belief that Bolshevism was the panacea for the 
ills of the toilers. The Bolshevist propagandists were in 
a better position; the Bolshevist movement commanded 
the admiration and sympathy of the workers of the world 
because of its connection with the liberation of Russia 
from the rule of the Czar; the Bolsheviki appeared as 
the under dog in the fight, and the average man has a 
natural sympathy for the under dog. 

Many thoughtless business men denounced Bolshevism 
without explaining it. Some of these employers de- 
nounced the workers in their own countries when they 
sought better conditions and called them Bolsheviki. To 
the workers it seemed that their enemies had lined up 
against Bolshevism, and they reasoned that "what is bad 
for the boss is good for us," and as a consequence their 
leaning toward Bolshevism became conviction. These 
mistakes of policy, these unwise attitudes have reacted 
in the minds of the workmen and I have heard many 
workers defend Bolshevism on the sole ground that they 
believed in it because of the enemies it had made. 

A curtain of mystery was drawn around Soviet Russia. 



2io THE NEW WORLD 

Men who came out of Russia bringing reports which 
displeased conservative opinion were abused, and their 
reports were discredited without a fair hearing. Bullit, 
Robbins, and Steffens are examples in America. The 
workers at once came to the conclusion that these men 
had found a free government in Russia, a government 
which gave larger and better lives to the people; that 
Bolshevism was practical; that it was succeeding and 
that it was feared by the "interests." Of course, this is 
not the real story brought from Russia, but the abuse 
used to silence men spoke louder and more eloquently 
than any report. 

One great London newspaper went so far as to charge 
the prohibition movement in the United States with being 
in league with the Bolsheviki, saying that the object was 
to increase unrest and irritate the workers by denying 
them alcohol, hoping that out of this restlessness would 
come revolution. 

Other counter Bolshevist propaganda pictured the Bol- 
shevist movement as a Jewish propaganda. This was 
clearly an appeal to prejudice. What difference could it 
make to free-minded people whether the leaders of the 
Soviet plan were Jews or not? The mass of the people 
have common sense, and saw in such propaganda an- 
other effort to make them hostile to Bolshevism by incit- 
ing race prejudice. 

Then came a crack in the curtain of silence. Through 
it issued the startling news that the Bolshevist govern- 
ment planned the nationalization of women. No rumor 
about Bolshevist Russia was given quite the prominence 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 211 

and publicity that was given to this falsehood. I have 
talked to many men who were bitterly opposed to Bol- 
shevism, who in the last analysis based their opposition 
to it on their belief that its program included "national 
prostitution." One insurance company in America made 
nation-wide use of this canard in its advertising. Of 
course, it is obvious to thinking people — and it should 
not be forgotten that the plain people think — that no 
people in the world would adopt any such degenerate 
program. First, the nationalization of women is not nec- 
essary to any economic program. Second, one could 
not round up five per cent of the people of any country 
in the world who would subscribe to a plan which con- 
templated the registration and violation of their mothers, 
wives, daughters, sisters, and sweethearts. The Rus- 
sians are human beings. The women are mothers, wives, 
daughters, and sweethearts. This evil and unnecessary 
lie about the Bolsheviki fell of its own weight. But it 
left an effect upon the minds of the workers. They con- 
cluded it was designed to poison public opinion against 
Bolshevism, and they reasoned that if there were true 
arguments against Bolshevism, those who opposed it 
would not have resorted to falsehood. Even more, the 
workers argued that if those who opposed Bolshevism 
lied about it in one particular, their whole opposition to 
it was a tissue of falsehood and their real antagonism was 
based upon the fear that the coming of the dictatorship 
of the proletariat would put an end to their selfish special 
privileges. 

The origin of this yarn about the nationalization of 



212 THE NEW WORLD 

women grew out of the following facts : In the little city 
of Ufa, a drunken man made the proposal in a Soviet 
that it adopt such a measure, and a group in the town 
of Saratov, calling themselves anarchists, issued a decree 
in April, 191 8, containing among other provisions the 
following : 

From March 1, the right to possess women having reached 
the ages of seventeen to thirty-two is abolished. 

The husbands may retain the right to use their wives with- 
out waiting their turn. 

In case of resistance the husband shall forfeit his rights. 

All women according to this decree are exempt from 
private ownership and are proclaimed to be the property of 
the whole nation. 

It was unfair to charge the Bolshevist government, on 
this evidence, with favoring the nationalization of 
women. 

A second piece of propaganda was sent out and given 
first-page space in the papers of the world. Its apparent 
object was to corroborate the lie about the nationaliza- 
tion of women. This second charge was that the Bolshe- 
viki had decided to abolish Christian names and hence- 
forth children would be named by number. To illus- 
trate, the first born of the Trotzky family would be 
Trotzky No. I, the second child would be Trotzky No. 
2, and so on. This was printed as serious news, as 
truth. I have heard workingmen declare that the objects 
of this publicity was to set them and their families 
against Bolshevism, and I observed that it had exactly 
the opposite effect. 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL 213 

Would it not have been better to tell the truth about 
the methods used by the Bolshevist government to de- 
grade womanhood by promulgating decrees relating to 
marriage and divorce, which practically establish a state 
of free love? The Senate committee investigating Bol- 
shevism, after examining much evidence on the attitude 
of the Bolshevist government and its decrees toward the 
home and common morality, said : "Their effect has 
been to furnish a vehicle for the legalization of prostitu- 
tion by permitting the annulment of the marriage bond 
at the whim of the parties, recognizing their collusive 
purposes as a ground for the severance of the matrimo- 
nial state.'' It should be borne in mind that these are 
but the decrees of the Soviet government and are shun- 
ned and despised by the Russian people. These decrees 
are important only as indicating the brutal immoral ideas 
of the dictators. 

Frederick Engels, who collaborated with Karl Marx, 
in the writing of the plan and program of Socialism 
wrote : 

"Three great obstacles block the path of social reform: 
private property, religion and the present form of marriage." 

The Allies' course has caused the workers to increase 
their suspicion of their government, A conviction has 
come that Bolshevism is being cried down, libeled, slan- 
dered, abused, and fought because its success threatened 
the death of special privilege and promised the birth of 
the "New Order." 

We should not be afraid of the Bolshevist propaganda. 



214 THE NEW WORLD 

We have the truth with us. Why not use our resources 
to give the facts about Bolshevism to the people ? There 
is no occasion for secrecy or mystery. Few people in 
America would entertain Bolshevist leanings if they un- 
derstood its program and knew its methods. The press, 
the pulpits, the platforms are available. Open the 
schools, the churches, the libraries, and the community 
centers and tell the truth about Bolshevism. 



\ 



CHAPTER XVII 
INTERMEDDLING IN RUSSIA 

The attitude of the Allies toward the Soviet Govern- 
ment has tended to create and increase world unrest. 
Before we can hope for industrial peace in the world a 
definite policy toward Bolshevist Russia must be adopted. 
This is a problem for statesmanship. Expediency, in- 
trigue, and vacillation must give way before world-pa- 
triotism. 

Unfortunately for the people of the world, the Allied 
governments have been without a definite policy toward 
the Soviet Government. Their attitude has been one of 
uncertainty ; at times a purposeless antagonism to Bolshe- 
vism, again a spurious support. From the beginning 
the Allies have opposed the Soviet form of government, 
but their opposition has taken no constructive form; it 
has lead to nothing; it has amounted to a disorderly 
scheme of interference, a general plan of annoyance. 
The peace table has been without a north star. It has 
steered without a compass. It has been without a definite 
objective. It has been at sea, adrift, so far as a policy 
toward Russia is concerned. 

At first we were told that the Allies would intervene 
and save the Russians from the rule of violence imposed 

215 



216 THE NEW WORLD 

by the "Red" Army under the command of Lenin and 
Trotzky. The Allies did not intervene; they did worse, 
they intermeddled. Worst of all, the Allied governments 
failed to keep the public fully and frankly advised as to 
what the Bolsheviki were doing and planning. The 
masses in ignorance of the real meaning and purposes of 
the Bolshevist government, not having been shown that it 
was a government of a small minority, that it was built 
on force, that the rule of might prevailed, that violence 
was the law, that terror was the order, that a dictator 
was the ruler, turned to the thought that the Soviet gov- 
ernment was the beginning of the changed order for 
which they had been looking and working. 

Pretended saviors arose in Russia, Denikin, Kolchak, 
Petura and Yudenich. These men were heralded in the 
Allied press as patriots, seeking to deliver the Russians 
from the yoke of violence and autocracy fastened on 
them by Lenin and Trotzky. While the Allied govern- 
ments did not openly and officially favor these counter- 
revolutionary movements in Russia, they furnished arm9 
and money for these uprisings. The phrase "self-deter- 
mination" had been gradually taking root in the minds 
of the people. No phrase in our time has so seized upon 
the thought of the world. Here was a violation of the 
fundamental meaning of the message America gave to 
the world through President Wilson and which the Al- 
lies adopted as their promise to the world. 

Then came stories that some of these "White Hopes" 
were brigands, adventurers, reactionaries. The only rea- 
son that could be offered for the Allies' giving support 



INTERMEDDLING IN RUSSIA 217 

to these revolutionaries was that they were against the 
Bolsheviki. Being against the Bolsheviki did not consti- 
tute a good and sufficient reason in the minds of the peo- 
ple of the world. 

Gradually the public learned that Admiral Kolchak 
was a reactionary. It leaked out that he was surrounded 
and supported by the favorites of the old regime; that his 
object was to reestablish the rule of the nobility in Rus- 
sia. Reports showed that his aids were the Cossack 
generals, Semenoff, Kalminkofr", and Rozonofr". The 
world knew of these Cossack generals. They were for- 
merly a part of the Czar's terrorists. Now that the Czar 
was dead and they were no longer on his payroll they had 
become mercenaries, and had seized upon the revolution 
as an opportunity to loot and pillage. From American 
soldiers (part of our expeditionary forces in Siberia) 
I learned that while the Russians in Siberia were opposed 
to Bolshevist violence and Soviet rule, they were even 
more bitterly opposed to a government headed by these 
hated Cossack generals. The British government gave 
special aid to Kolchak, while privately and secretly Lloyd 
George admitted that Kolchak was a reactionary. On 
January 16, 1919, at a conference of the Allied leaders in 
Paris, the official minutes of the conversations report that 
Lloyd George said : 

Moreover, from information received, it would appear 
that Kolchak had been collecting members of the old regime 
around him and would seem to be at heart a monarchist. It 
appeared that the Czecho-Slovaks were finding this out. The 
sympathies of the Czecho-Slovaks are very democratic and. 



2i8 THE NEW WORLD 

they had not been at all prepared to fight for the restoration 
of old conditions in Russia. 

The Paris conference declared that 8,000 American 
soldiers and an equal number of Japanese soldiers should 
enter Siberia for the purpose of saving the Trans-Sibe- 
rian Railway. This military occupation was not given 
authority to loot, nor was it authorized to enter Siberia 
for the purpose of conquest. When Major General 
Graves led the American Expeditionary Force into Sibe- 
ria he found the Japanese army there in great numbers. 
Instead of the 8,000 authorized by the Paris conference, 
Japan had nearly 70,000 soldiers in Siberia. It was 
understood that the use of the railroads by the Amer- 
ican and Japanese military should be confined to military 
uses alone. The truth is the Japanese used the railways 
to carry out spoils. Japan has been penetrating Siberia. 
Siberia is rich in gold, platinum, timber, furs, bristles, 
coal, and salt. Generals Rozonofr, Semenofr, and Kal- 
minkoff have been betraying and peddling their country 
to the yellow masters of the Far East. We will have to 
reckon with Japan's boldness and ambition. The Allies 
gave courage to her effrontery when they turned Shan- 
tung and 40,000,000 Chinese over to Japan. Shantung 
is the commercial heart of China ; it is, as well, its soul. 
It is the cradle of her great prophet, Confucius. The 
ex-Kaiser, through a friendly compact with the late Czar 
Nicholas, seized Shantung. When the World War came, 
Japan sat on the fence. France and England urged her 
to go in with the Allies. She did, but only after she had 



INTERMEDDLING IN RUSSIA 219 

received her price. By private agreements with France 
and England, German rights (truth would have written 
them German wrongs) in Shantung were turned over to 
Japan. This betrayal of China's freedom was made in 
secret. America was kept in the dark as to the arrange- 
ment. Balfour came to America and told us many 
things, but nothing about this secret compact. We in- 
duced China to cast her lot with the Allies. All China 
asked was that when Germany was conquered and driven 
out of Shantung, that China be given back her own, 
Shantung. When the war ended President Wilson in 
Paris sought to restore Shantung to China. Japan ob- 
jected and presented her claim. She based it on the 
secret agreement with England and France. For the 
first time America learned of this secret bargain. Fin- 
ally and unfortunately we consented to give Japan the 
determination of Shantung. We struck the word "self " 
out of the phrase "self-determination." No single act 
has so shocked the world as this deal. 

Let America take her troops out of Siberia; let us 
leave Russia alone. She will find herself sooner if we 
do. Let us stop encouraging Denikins, Yudenichs, Pe- 
turas, and Kolchaks. Let us by our policy convince the 
Russian people and the world that we believe in self- 
determination and that we want the Russian people to 
have a chance to solve their own problem. With the end 
of revolutionary movements in Russia, one reason for 
the existence of the "Red" Army will disappear. The 
majority in Russia want a free, democratic government. 
They will get it if they are left to themselves. 



220 THE NEW WORLD 

I asked two important Slav leaders for their opinion 
as to the policy the world should adopt toward the Bol- 
sheviki and the Russian problem. In Prague I spoke to 
President Mazayrik of Czecho-Slovakia ; in Warsaw I 
interviewed General Pilsudski, Provisional President of 
Poland. Both answered the question in practically the 
same words : "Let Russia alone ; let the Russian people 
solve the Russian question/' 

AN INSINCERE PEACE PROPOSAL 

From Soviet Russia comes a plea for peace ; it comes 
from the same lips that promised the Russian people a 
constitutional convention and later broke their faith with 
the people by dissolving the popular assembly with the 
bayonets of the "Red" Army. Now, the Bolshevist gov- 
ernment extends one hand to the world and asks fellow- 
ship in the family of nations while the other hand, con- 
cealed behind its back, holds a dagger. This is 
the same dictatorship that began its rule by decreeing 
grand larceny and confiscation and for two and 
one-half years has terrorized Russia. It is the same 
Soviet Russia that called the Third International 
and sent forth its clarion cry to the workers of the 
world to unite and disarm the bourgeoisie, com- 
manding the workers to abstain from the use of the 
ballot and use force in open battle against all organ- 
ized authority. The same Lenin and Trotzky are at the 
helm, who scoff at moral obligations, who justify terror 
and murder by pronouncing these criminal acts "a neces- 
sary part of the world revolution." The peace proposal 



INTERMEDDLING IN RUSSIA 221 

is not made in good faith. It is an intrigue, a device of 
cunning, calculated to throw the world off guard and to 
give the forces of disorder more time for organization; 
to create a respite for the Russian "Red" Army until a 
more favorable hour arrives for a blow against the peace 
and freedom of the world. 

When the Bolsheviki say they want peace and give 
assurances, that they wish simply to be let alone in order 
to work out their experiment in Russia, such offers to 
compromise are, it has been shown, purely tactical. 
After the expulsion of the Bolshevist Ambassador Joffre 
from Berlin, Checherin boasted of the millions of rubles 
taken to Russia for propaganda purposes. 1 

Another illustration of the "scrap of paper" attitude 
of the Bolsheviki toward treaties is contained in a signed 
article 2 on revolutionary methods in which Joffre says : 

Having accepted this forcibly imposed treaty (the Brest- 
Litovsk Treaty), revolutionary Russia of course had to 
accept its second article, which forbade any agitation 
against the state and military institutions of Germany. But 
both the Russian government as a whole and its accredited 
representatives in Berlin never concealed the fact that they 
were not observing this article and did not intend to do so. 

That the Bolsheviki are playing an international game 
aimed at the subversion of all governments, is disclosed 
by the avowed tactics of their foreign policy. In his 
Peace Program published at Petrograd February, 191 8, 
Trotzky says: 

1 Official note to German Foreign Office in "Zrostri," De- 
cember 28, 1918. 

2 Izvestia, January 1, 1919. 



222 THE NEW WORLD 

If in awaking the imminent proletarian flood in Russia, 
Russia should be forced to conclude peace with the present- 
day governments of the Central Powers, it would be a 
provisional, temporary, and transitory peace, with the revi- 
sion of which the European revolution will have to concern 
itself in the first instance, our whole policy is built upon 

THE EXPECTATION OF THIS REVOLUTION. 

It is well to recall the total lack of moral sense shown 
by the Bolsheviki in their dealings not only with the 
people of Russia but with the world. They are bold and 
shameless in their double-dealing. Zinoviov, President 
of the Petrograd Soviet, in a speech delivered February 
2, 1919, on the Prinkopo Island proposal said: 

We are willing to sign an unfavorable peace with the 
Allies. . . It would only mean that we should put no trust 
whatever in the bit of paper we sign. We should use the 
breathing space so obtained in order to gather our strength, 
in order that the mere continued existence of our govern- 
ment would keep up the world-wide propaganda which So- 
viet Russia has been carrying on for more than a year. 

The Seventh Ail-Russian Congress met in Moscow in 
December, 1919. Trotzky reported to the Congress: 

If one speaks of the conclusion of peace within the next 
month, such a # peace cannot be called a permanent peace. 
So long as class states remain as powerful centers of im- 
perialism in Europe and America, it is not impossible that 
the peace which we shall perhaps conclude in the near 
future will be for us only one long and prolonged respite. 
So long as this possibility is not excluded, it is possible that 
it will be a matter not of disarming but of altering the form 
of the armed forces of the state. We must pass to the 
militia system of armed forces. 



INTERMEDDLING IN RUSSIA 223 

Trotzky's report was unanimously adopted by the Con- 
gress without debate. 

Theoretically, the All-Russian Congress is the supreme 
power of the Soviet government; at least, the constitu- 
tion declares that it is. It would seem that the action of 
this Congress fixes the policy of the Soviet government. 
If anything can be binding on Lenin and Trotzky, the 
action of the Congress is. Then, too, the Congress only 
indorsed the policy advocated by Trotzky. 

About a month after Trotzky's report, proposals of 
peace, requests for recognition, were sent to the world by 
the Bolsheviki. If we consider these proposals and re- 
quests in the light of the foregoing resolution, it is ap- 
parent that Lenin and Trotzky are acting in bad faith, 
and the only inference possible is that the Soviet gov- 
ernment seeks time for further preparation. 



CHAPTER XIX 
BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 

Have we Bolshevism in the United States? 

Is it organized? 

Is its object the overthrow of the government by force 
and violence? 

Who are the Bolsheviki? 

Have they a plan of revolution? 

These questions are in the daily thought of the Amer- 
ican people. The time has come to face the facts. If 
Bolshevism in the United States is a myth, we should 
know it and dismiss it from our thoughts. If it is real, 
then we should be prepared to meet it. Prevention is 
better than cure. Such a course saves blood and the 
other ugly evils which attend revolutions. 

Bolshevism and socialism, as we knew the latter before 
the war, had one meaning in common, both were for 
communism, but Bolshevism seeks to realize its end 
by force and violence, while socialism sought the bring- 
ing about of the socialist state by the ballot, by parlia- 
mentary methods. Bolshevism is revolutionary. It 
preaches and practices its doctrine, force. Russia is 
the proof; Lenin, Trotzky, and the "Red Guard" the 
witnesses. Socialism has been evolutionary. The dif- 

224 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 225 

ference between these two "isms" is not in objective, but 
in program, the method of reaching the objective. 

The Socialist Party in the United States had a definite 
plan. It advocated a series of distinct steps as a means 
to the final goal, complete communism. Its propaganda 
urged the reformation of the government of the United 
States by peaceful methods. It was a political party in 
the sense that it had its platform, nominated candidates 
for office, and waged a campaign of education to secure 
their election. It was as legitimate as any other party. 
It was acting under the constitution ; while it sought com- 
pletely to change the government of the United States, it 
sought to accomplish this aim by securing the votes of 
the majority of the citizens of the Republic. Socialism, 
whether it is good or evil, coming at the express wish of 
the majority would be "a government of the people, for 
the people and by the people." It would be government 
"by the consent of the governed." 

Bolshevism is an outlaw. Bolshevism in the United 
States is criminal. The Bolsheviki in the United States 
advocate the bringing about of communism by force, 
revolution. A party advocating the use of force to 
change the government of the United States admits that 
it is a minority party. We can have government only by 
the minority or by the majority, and it is plain that of the 
two, the nearest approach to freedom is by the majority 
of the people. A majority of the people of the United 
States can change the form of government at their will. 
The Constitution provides an orderly, peaceful method 
of changing the form of government. It is true that the 



226 THE NEW WORLD 

Constitution wisely places certain checks upon the proce- 
dure so that sweeping fundamental changes in our gov- 
ernment cannot be brought about in haste. The fathers 
of the Republic understood the dangers of rash action, 
but radical and fundamental changes can be made as is 
shown by the eighteen changes called Constitutional 
Amendments that have been made in our government in 
its life of less than a hundred and fifty years. Recently 
two changes have been made, both of which are vital 
changes in the law of the land. I refer to the amend- 
ment to the Constitution providing for the election of 
United States senators by the direct vote of the people 
and the new constitutional provision abolishing the liquor 
traffic. Whether one agrees with either or both of these 
recent changes in our form of government, it cannot be 
denied that they are the law of the land by virtue of 
the will of the people. Sane men do not use force to 
accomplish an aim which can be secured without the use 
of force. There can be only one reason for urging the 
use of force as a means of changing or overthrowing 
the government and that is that the proponents of the 
change are in the minority and as a consequence cannot 
accomplish their desire through the ballot. 

The plan of the Socialist Party in the United States 
was to advocate municipal ownership of public utilities 
and the governmental ownership of the railroads and 
mines. This was the opening wedge. It did not sponsor 
these reforms as remedies for existing conditions, but 
favored them as a step toward communism. The Social- 
ists argued that the success of municipal and national 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 227 

ownership of public utilities would point the way toward 
government ownership of everything — communism. They 
preached that these victories for common ownership 
would give the people a chance to see the practical suc- 
cess of governmental ownership, even more that each 
city adopting municipal ownership would be territory ac- 
quired, a "Red" dot on the map. Government ownership 
of the railroads and the nationalization of the mine9 
would extend socialism and consolidate and organize the 
victories in the cities. It would show the feasibility of 
government ownership on a large scale. The Socialists 
were not unmindful of the fact that transportation and 
power are the two great forces in industrial life. All 
industry, all business, depend upon coal, power, and 
transportation. Without the cooperation of these two 
essentials, privately owned industry could not function. 

But the war changed the socialist creed. A new ma- 
jority arose in the Socialist Party. It was impatient with 
the socialism I have described. It marked the old social- 
ism as reactionary and referred to the dominant social- 
ism before the war as "moderate socialism." 

The radicals in the Socialist Party, called the members 
of the Left Wing, were moved to action by the happen- 
ings in Russia. Everywhere in their creed, platforms, 
programs and methods one can see the direct influence 
of the Bolshevism of Russia. In fact, as we shall see, 
the entire plan of the new radicalism in America is iden- 
tical with the plan of Russian Bolshevism. Even the 
same words are used, so fearful are the American Bol- 
sheviki that they will lose something of the Russian 



228 THE NEW WORLD 

program if they set it forth in any terms except the orig- 
inal. 

The first evidence that the seed of Bolshevism had 
sprouted in the United States was the organization on 
November 7, 191 8, of a Communist Propaganda League 
and the appearance of a publication, The Revolutionary 
Age. This little group sounded the call to arms, declar- 
ing that their first battle must be with the reactionary 
Socialists, who controlled the Socialist Party of the 
United States. In February, 1919, the foreign language 
branches and a few of the English speaking branches of 
the Socialist Party issued a Manifesto. In its first proc- 
lamation the Left Wing of the Socialist Party advocated 
the overthrow of our government by force. 

Revolutionary Socialists hold, with the founders of Scien- 
tific Socialism, that there are two dominant classes in society, 
the bourgeoisie (middle class), and the proletariat (un- 
skilled laborers, who own no property). Between these two 
classes a struggle must go on, until the working class 
through the seizure of the instruments of production and 
distribution, the abolition of the capitalist state, and the 
establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat, creates a 
socialist system. Revolutionary Socialists do not believe that 
they can be voted into power. They struggle for the con- 
quest of power by the revolutionary proletariat. 

In the above extract from the First Left Wing Mani- 
festo of the Socialists of the United States, it is plain 
that they propose to seize industry and establish a dicta- 
torship of the proletariat. They openly avow that they 
have no faith in the ballot. Their belief is in revolution. 

Speaking of the class struggle, this Manifesto says : 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 229 

We assert with Marx that the "class struggle is essen- 
tially a political struggle," and we can only accept his oft 
repeated interpretation of the phrase. The class struggle, 
whether it manifests itself on the industrial field or in the 
direct struggle for governmental control is essentially a 
struggle for the capture and destruction of the capitalist 
state. This is a political act. In this broader view of the 
term "political," Marx includes revolutionary industrial 
action, in the sense that it aims to undermine the bourgeois 
state, which "is nothing less than a machine for the oppres- 
sion of one class by another, and that no less so in a demo- 
cratic-republic than under a monarchy." 

Marx programmed socialism; he is the great high 
priest of Communism. The platforms and programs, the 
manifestoes and pamphlets of the Communists in the 
United States abound in quotations from Marx. It is 
fair to accept Karl Marx as the interpreter, and in the 
above extract from the First Left Wing Manifesto, we 
have light on the meaning of the word "political," as 
used by the Communists. To them political action does 
not mean voting. It hasn't the same meaning to the 
Communists that we generally have in mind when we 
use the word. Marx has given the word "political" a 
broader meaning, saying that it includes "revolutionary 
industrial action" and Marx goes on to say that the object 
of "revolutionary industrial action" is to capture and de- 
stroy the capitalistic state. According to every Socialist, 
the government of the United States of America is a 
"capitalistic state." When we read the words "capital- 
istic state," "bourgeois government," "imperialistic 
state," we know that the government of the United States 



230 THE NEW WORLD 

is meant. They have said so, not once but thousands 
of times; not one but all of them. 

The National Executive Committee of the Socialist 
Party met in Chicago on May 24, 1919. The Committee 
was under fire, the Left Wingers were making a desper- 
ate fight to capture the machinery of the Party. The 
members of the Executive Committee were being assailed 
as traitors to the "cause." They were charged with hav- 
ing sold out the "Internationalists." The Executive 
Committee, meeting in Chicago, decided to purge itself 
of the Left Wing radicals and expelled from member- 
ship about 40,000 members. This action caused the Left 
Wing to issue a call on May 31, 1919, for delegates to 
attend a National Left Wing Convention to be held in 
New York City on June 21. 

The Left Wing Conference met. The delegates repre- 
sented over 50,000 members. This Convention carefully 
prepared a Manifesto and a program. In it they an- 
nounced the policy and plans of the new socialism in the 
United States, later known as the Communist Party, 
and the Communist Labor Party. 

No man can faithfully serve two masters, and no hon- 
est man tries to do so. Neither can a citizen of the Re- 
public be loyal to the nation and give his allegiance to the 
Third International. When a man applies for citizenship 
in the United States, the first thing we do is to make 
him forswear his allegiance to his fatherland. 

As the corner stone of the Left Wing program, the Con- 
vention wrote: 

We favor international alliance of the socialist movement 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 231 

of the United States only with the communist groups of 
other countries, such as the Bolsheviki of Russia, Sparticists 
of Germany, etc. 

We are opposed to association with other groups, not com- 
mitted to the revolutionary class struggle, such as Labor 
Parties, Non-partisan Leagues, People's Councils, Municipal 
Ownership Leagues and the like. 

The Left Wingers not only stripped themselves of their 
citizenship in the United States but they declared war 
upon the government of the United States by adopting 
the Moscow Manifesto and pledging their undivided de- 
votion to its principles. By this act they promised to 
arouse "the proletariat to make use of the means of bat- 
tle, which will concentrate its entire energies, namely, 
mass action, with its logical resultant, direct conflict witH 
the governmental machinery in open combat." 

The above quotation is the language of the Moscow 
Manifesto and to this object they gave allegiance. Could 
English be plainer, the meaning bristles out of the words 
■ — mass action, direct conflict of the governmental ma- 
chinery in open combat, the use of the means of battle. 

The Left Wing Manifesto declares that the new social- 
ism is a world movement. It says : 

The predatory "war for democracy" dominated the world. 
But now it is the revolutionary proletariat in action that 
dominates, conquering power in some nations, mobilizing to 
conquer power in others and calling upon the proletariat of 
all nations to prepare for a final struggle against capitalism. 
Russia is the one country in which the revolutionary prole- 
tariat have conquered and destroyed the state. The Left 
Wing was the first mobilization camp in the United States 



232 THE NEW WORLD 

organized for the purpose of conquering the power of the 
American government. 

There can now be only the socialism which is one in 
temper and in purpose with the proletarian revolutionary 
struggle. There can be only the socialism which unites the 
proletariat of the whole world in the general struggle against 
the desperately destructive imperialisms — the imperialisms 
which array themselves as a single force against the on- 
sweeping proletarian revolution. 

And the revolutionary struggle is now. It is to follow 
Lenin and Trotzky's plan as outlined in the Third Inter- 
national. The Left Wing Manifesto makes this clear in 
the following language: 

The revolutionary epoch of the final struggle against cap- 
italism may last for years and tens of years; but the Com- 
munist International offers a policy and program imme- 
diate and ultimate in scope, that provides for the immediate 
class struggle, against capitalism, in its revolutionary impli- 
cations, and for the final act of the conquest of power. 

The Left Wingers charge that the World War was a 
war of imperialism and "unjustifiable on any pretext of 
national interest" and that "the dominant socialism ac- 
cepted and justified the war." They insist that true so- 
cialism is international and has no obligation to national 
allegiance. Loyalty to any flag except the "Red" flag, 
Left Wingers claim is a betrayal of the proletariat. In 
the Left Wing Manifesto we learn : 

Great demonstrations were held. The governments and 
war were denounced, but immediately upon the declaration 
of war there was a change of front. War credits were 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 233 

voted by socialists in the parliaments. The dominant social- 
ism favored the war, a small minority adopted a petty bour- 
geois pacifism, and only the Left Wing groups adhered to 
the policy of revolutionary socialism. 

The dominant socialism, in accepting and justifying the 
war, abandoned the class struggle and betrayed socialism. 
The class struggle is the heart of socialism. Without strict 
conformity to the class struggle, in its revolutionary implica- 
tions, socialism becomes either sheer Utopianism, or a 
method of reaction. But the dominant socialism accepted 
"civil peace/' the "unity of all the classes and parties" in 
order to wage successfully the imperialistic war. The dom- 
inant socialism united with the government against social- 
ism and the Proletariat. 

The Left Wingers have broken with socialism be- 
cause moderate socialism did not stand in the way of 
national unity during the war. It is written in this Man- 
ifesto that "it is precisely during the war that material 
conditions provide the opportunity for waging the class 
struggle to a conclusion for the conquest of power." It 
will be remembered that Lenin frequently spoke of 
changing the World War into a civil war. In other 
words, this new radical movement is the enemy of mod- 
erate socialism because it did not play the role of Judas 
and strike the warring governments in the back. It is 
plain that the World War offered an opportunity for such 
dastardly cowardice. The Manifesto denounces mod- 
erate socialism which it sometimes refers to as "domi- 
nant socialism" for not turning the "imperialistic war 
into a civil war," and charges these "reactionary social- 



234 THE NEW WORLD 

ists" with forgetting the Paris Commune and the Rus- 
sian Revolution of 1905. 

The Manifesto calls attention to the fact that domi- 
nant socialism tries to defend its "acceptance of the war 
on the plea that a revolution did not materialize, that 
the masses abandoned socialism." 

To this plea the Manifesto makes this answer: 

This was conscious subterfuge. When the economic and 
political crisis did develop potential revolutionary action in 
the proletariat, the dominant socialism immediately assumed 
an attitude against the revolution. The proletariat was 
urged not to make a revolution. The dominant socialism 
united with the capitalistic governments to prevent a Revo- 
lution. 

Bringing the charge home to the then Socialist Party 
in the United States the Manifesto says : 

The war and the Russian proletarian revolution in Russia 
provided the opportunity. The Socialist Party, under the 
impulse of its membership, adopted a militant declaration 
against the war. But the officials of the party sabotaged 
this declaration. The official policy of the party on the war 
was a policy of petty bourgeois pacifism. 

This policy necessarily developed into a repudiation 
of the revolutionary socialist position. 

Does this sound like treason? These Left Wingers 
assail the officials of the Socialist Party for only betray- 
ing the country in the war hour to the extent of being 
pacifists. They are condemned for not going the limit. 
They should have become militant. Militant is defined 
in the dictionary to be "Fighting, warring, engaging in 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 235 

warfare." This should have been their conduct toward 
the nation during the war. 

Moderate socialism is criticized and condemned for 
having as its goal "constructive reforms/' "cooperation 
with other classes," and for declaring "that the coming 
of socialism was the concern of all the classes," 
instead of emphasizing the Marxian policy that the 
construction of the socialist system is the task of the re- 
volutionary proletariat alone. In "accepting social 
reformism," "cooperation of the classes," and the bour- 
geois parliamentary state as the basis of its action, mod- 
erate socialism was prepared to share responsibility with 
the bourgeoisie in the control of the capitalist state even 
to the extent of defending the bourgeoisie against the 
working class and its revolutionary mass movement. 

The Manifesto expressly condemns faith in orderly 
peaceful methods to attain communism and declares "the 
dominant socialism developed a policy of legislative re- 
forms .... making a revolutionary class struggle 
a parliamentary process. This development meant ob- 
viously the abandonment of fundamental socialism. It 
meant working on the basis of the bourgeois parliamen- 
tary state, instead of the struggle to destroy that state; 
it meant the "cooperation of classes" for state capitalism, 
instead of the uncompromising proletarian struggle. 
Government ownership, the objective of the middle class, 
was the policy of moderate socialism. Instead of a revo- 
lutionary theory of the necessity of conquering capital- 
ism, the official theory and practice was now that of 



236 THE NEW WORLD 

modifying capitalism, of a gradual peaceful "growing 
into socialism by means of legislative reforms." 

Surely it cannot be said that the revolutionary so- 
cialists have failed to make clear their decision to use 
force. They have not only said so but they condemn 
moderate socialism for advocating "a peaceful growing 
into socialism by means of legislative reforms." 

Commenting upon the effect of the policy of the mod- 
erate socialists the Left Wingers say: 

What the parliamentary policy of the dominant socialism 
accomplished was to buttress the capitalist state, to promote 
capitalism, to strengthen imperialism. 

And why? 

The dominant socialism based itself on the middle class 
and the aristocracy of labor (all organized labor except the 
I. W. W.) but these have compromised with imperialism, 
being bribed by a share in the spoils of imperialism. 

Every union card carrier in the United States is 
charged with selling his loyalty to his country during 
the war. How about the men who took off overalls and 
put on the uniform? Was he bribed by a share in the 
spoils. Many of them gave up good paying jobs to 
fight the good fight and some never came back. Were 
they, too, bribed? If this is not treason what is? 

The Manifesto emphasizes the following essential dif- 
ferences between moderate socialism and itself: 

Moderate socialism is compromising, vacillating, treacher- 
ous, because the social elements it depends upon — the petite 
bourgeoisie and aristocracy of labor — are not a fundamental 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 237 

factor in society; they vacillate between the bourgeoisie and 
the proletariat, their social instability produces political in- 
stability; and, moreover, they have been seduced by im- 
perialism and are now united with imperialism. 

Revolutionary socialism is resolute, uncompromising, 
revolutionary, because it builds upon a fundamental social 
factor. The industrial proletarian Revolutionary socialism 
adheres to the class struggle, because through the class 
struggle alone — the mass struggle — can the industrial pro- 
letariat secure immediate concessions and finally conquer 
power by organizing the industrial government of the work- 
ing class. 

The Manifesto declares that the only way to commu- 
nism is the Russian road. It says that the moderate 
socialists "conceived the task of revolution in Germany 
and Russia to be the construction of a democratic par- 
liamentary state, after which the process of introducing 
socialism by legislative reform methods could be initi- 
ated/' 

This was the plan of Kerensky in Russia. He was as 
insistent a communist as any one could be, but he 
favored giving the people a chance to form a free 
government and to this end advocated a convention of 
the representatives of the Russian people — a constitu- 
tional convention, sometimes called a constituent assem- 
bly. A democratic government so formed could by legis- 
lation establish communism. This would be communism 
without a dictator, it would be an overthrow of the form 
of government in an orderly manner. There are but two 
ways in which a government can be changed — one is by 
the parliamentary or legislative method, the other is by 



238 THE NEW WORLD 

the extra-parliamentary (beyond the scope of law) 
method — force. 

The Left Wing Convention made its choice : 

Revolutionary socialism, on the contrary, insists that the 
democratic parliamentary state can never be the basis for 
the introduction of socialism, that it is necessary to destroy 
the parliamentary state. 

And to prove their contention that force is the only 
way to socialism they cite the case of Russia : 

The proletarian revolution in action has conclusively 
proved that moderate socialism is incapable of realizing the 
objectives of socialism. Revolutionary socialism alone is 
capable of mobilizing the proletariat for socialism, for the 
conquest of the power of the state by means of revolution- 
ary mass action and proletarian dictatorship. 

The Manifesto, under the caption "Political Action," 
gives us the meaning of the phrase : 

The class struggle is a political struggle. It is a political 
struggle in the sense that its objective is political — the over- 
throw of the political organization upon which capitalistic 
exploitation depends, and the introduction of a new social 
system. The direct objective is the conquest by the pro- 
letariat of the power of the state. 

How? 

Revolutionary socialism does not propose to "capture" the 
bourgeois parliamentary state, but to conquer and destroy it. 
Revolutionary socialism, accordingly, repudiates the policy 
of introducing socialism by means of legislative measures on 
the basis of the bourgeois state. 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 239 

Revolutionary socialism, accordingly, proposes to conquer 
the power of the state. It proposes to conquer by means of 
political action — political action in the revolutionary Marx- 
ian sense, which does not mean parliamentarism, but the 
class action of the proletariat in any form having as its 
objective the conquest of the power of the state. 

Parliamentary action is only for propaganda pur- 
poses ; it is of secondary importance. The Left Wing 
Manifesto says: 

But parliamentarism cannot conquer the power of the 
state for the proletariat. The conquest of the power of the 
state is an extra-parliamentary act (an act above and be- 
yond the law.) It is accomplished not by the legislative 
representatives of the proletariat but by the mass power op 

THE PROLETARIAT IN ACTION. 

What is mass action ? How do the communists in the 
United States propose mass power? 

The Left Wing Manifesto answers both questions: 

Mass action starts as the spontaneous activity of unorgan- 
ized workers massed in the basic industry; its initial form 
is the mass strike of the unorganized proletariat. 

Mass action is industrial in its origin; but its development 
imposes upon it a political character, since the more general 
and conscious mass action becomes, the more it antagonizes 
the bourgeois state, political mass action. 

The revolution starts with strikes of protest, developing 
into mass political strikes, and then into revolutionary mass 
action for the conquest of the power of the state. Mass 
action becomes political in purpose but extra-parliamentary 
in form; it is equally a process of revolution and the revo- 
lution ITSELF IN OPERATION. 

The final objective of mass action is the conquest of the 



^ 4 o THE NEW WORLD 

power of the state, the annihilation of the bourgeois parlia- 
mentary state, and the introduction of the transition pro- 
letarian state, functioning as a revolutionary dictatorship of 
the proletariat. 

Under the heading "Problems of American Socialism" 
the Manifesto tells of the task to which it has set itself : 

A minor phase of the awakening of labor is the trades 
unions organizing a Labor Party, in an effort to conserve 
what they have secured as a privileged caste. A Labor 
Party is not the instrument for the emancipation of the 
working class; its policy would in general be what is now 
the official policy of the Socialist Party — reforming capital- 
ism on the basis of the bourgeois parliamentary state. La- 
borism is as much a danger to the revolutionary proletariat 
as moderate, petty bourgeois socialism, — the two being ex- 
pressions of an identical tendency and policy. There can be 
no compromise either with laborism or with the dominant 
moderate socialism. 

But there is a more vital tendency, — the tendency of the 
workers to initiate mass strikes, — strikes which are equally 
a revolt against the bureaucracy in the unions and against 
the employers. These strikes will constitute the determin- 
ing feature of proletarian action in the days to come. Revo- 
lutionary socialism must use these mass industrial revolts 
to broaden the strike, to make it general and militant; use 
the strike for political objectives, and, finally, develop the 
mass political strike against capitalism and the state. 

Revolutionary socialism must base itself on the mass 
struggles of the proletariat, engage directly in these strug- 
gles while emphasizing the revolutionary purposes of social- 
ism and the proletarian movement. The mass strikes of 
the American proletariat provide the material basis out of 
which to develop the concepts and action of revolutionary 
socialism. 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 241 

Our task is to encourage the militant mass movements in 
the A. F. of L., to split the old unions, to break the power of 
unions which are corrupted by imperialism and betray the 
militant proletariat. The A. F. of L., in its dominant 
^expression, is united with imperialism. A bulwark of re- 
action, — it must be exposed and its power for evil broken. 

The Manifesto cites two efforts that failed: 

Strikes are developing which verge on revolutionary ac- 
tion, and in which the suggestion of proletarian dictatorship 
is apparent, the strike-workers trying to usurp functions of 
municipal government, as in Seattle and Winnipeg. 

The general strike called in Winnipeg, May 15, 1919, 
was designed to overthrow constituted government by 
all the people and substitute government by self -consti- 
tuted dictators. Resolutions adopted by a convention 
of secessionists from the American Federation of Labor, 
at Calgary, months before the strike in Winnipeg, clearly 
stated the purpose was to establish a Soviet government 
in Canada. 

After a general strike of the fire department, the high 
pressure water plant employees, the health, light and 
power departments, telephone operators, postal workers, 
employees in the bakeries and dairies and delivery men, 
workers in the retail and wholesale establishments deal- 
ing in the necessaries of life, the General Strike Com- 
mittee issued permits allowing bread and milk deliveries 
in limited quantities. The Committee gave orders limit- 
ing the activities of the police and assumed the govern- 
ment of the city, which was the real purpose of the 
strike. 



242 THE NEW WORLD 

One illustration of permit to live government in Win- 
nipeg under the attempted Bolshevism is sufficient: 

Mr. Carruthers. 
Dear Sir: 

Would be pleased to have you give a sufficient supply of 
milk to bearer for sick wife. 

Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council. 

H. G. Veitch, 
Food Commissioner. 

The "bearer" sought milk for a dying wife, and was 
refused it by the Bolshevist employees of the Crescent 
Creamery Company, until he secured a permit from the 
Food Commissioner of the General Strike Committee. 
The "bearer" got the permit, but too late. His wife was 
dead. 

When the revolutionary strike hit Seattle the city was 
a closed shop city, that is, it was practically ioo per cent 
union labor. The strike was without any cause, the 
workers had no grievance. The Central Strike Commit- 
tee sent for Mayor Ole Hanson and told him that they 
were going to take over the electric light plant and that 
there would be no lights. The Mayor replied, "You 
mean to use force — well I do, too. You cannot seize 
the people's property unless you have more force than I 
have." 

The strike committee closed the stores, the groceries, 
the meat markets, the milk depots. They tried to starve 
the people into submission. They tied up the street car 
systems, called out the teamsters. A "flu" epidemic was 
raging and the dead piled up because the General Strike 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 243 

Committee refused to allow the dead to be buried with- 
out a permit from the committee. The newspapers were 
suspended. And what for? They intended to make the 
people suffer so much that they would submit and turn 
the government of the city over to the workers. It was 
America's first taste of the Left Wing program. 

I have given the detail of the plan of the Left Wing 
Convention because this group in the Socialist Party 
later divided into the Communist Labor Party and the 
Communist Party, both of which, as we shall see, are at 
work in the United States, agitating and organizing, try- 
ing to use the present unrest in the country to foment 
the "deepened, broadened, political mass strike — the 
weapon of revolution." 

On July 19, 1919, the Left Wing issued a call for a 
convention to be held in Chicago on September 1, for 
the purpose of organizing a Communist Party. 

On August 30, 1919, the Socialist Party met in Chi- 
cago for the purpose of discussing the situation. The 
Left Wingers tried to capture the convention, the police 
were called in, and the Bolsheviki of the party were 
driven out. The expelled "Reds" divided, one group 
organizing the Communist Labor Party, and the other, 
the Communist Party. Both were the outgrowth of the 
Left Wing Convention. Their purposes and principles 
are the same. 

The delegates to the Communist Labor Party assem- 
bled in Chicago in the headquarters of the Recruiting 
Union of the I. W. W. on September 3, 1919. The con- 
vention represented a membership of about 30,000. Upon 



244 THE NEW WORLD 

the conclusion of the convention the Party started an 
aggressive campaign, establishing several newspapers, 
circulating pamphlets and holding organization meetings 
throughout the country. 

The Party adopted the coat of arms of the Bolshevist 
government as its emblem. It adopted the Manifesto 
of the Third International as its guide. It mapped out a 
comprehensive scheme of organization, working out 
every detail carefully. The constitution provides that 
"no member of the party shall accept or hold any ap- 
pointive or public office (Civil Service positions ex- 
cepted) without the consent of his state organization." 
The members have no allegiance to the nation ; fealty is 
due the Party alone. And the Party wrote as the first 
paragraph of its program: 

The Communist Labor Party of America declares itself in 
complete accord with the principles of the communism, as 
laid down in the Manifesto of the Third International 
formed at Moscow. 

In another portion of their platform we find the fol- 
lowing statement of what they propose to do : 

The Communist Labor Party proposes the organization of 
the workers as a class, the overthrow of capitalist rule 

AND THE CONQUEST OF POLITICAL POWER BY THE WORKERS. 

The workers organized as the ruling class, shall, through 
their government, make and enforce the laws; they shall 
own and control land, factories, mills, mines, transportation 
systems and financial institutions. All power to the 
workers. 

It calls the working class to "organize and train itself for 
the capture of state power." 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 245 

The Party points to the strikes at Winnipeg and Seat- 
tle as the way to victory. "The most important means 
of capturing state power for the workers is the action of 
the masses, proceeding from the place where the 

WORKERS ARE GATHERED IN THE SHOPS AND FACTORIES. 

The use of the political machinery of the capitalist state 
is only secondary." 

The program of the Communist Labor Party is a rep- 
etition of the Left Wing Manifesto and Program. 

The Communist Party met in Chicago September 1, 
to September 7, 1919. Its 130 delegates represented a 
membership of over 50,000. The Party joined the Third 
International and took as its watchword the "Way to 
victory" set forth in the Moscow Manifesto. 

On page 1 of the Manifesto issued by the Communist 
Party of America, we read: "The struggle is between 
the capitalist nations (the United States) of the world 
and the international proletariat, inspired by Soviet 
Russia." 

This Manifesto insists that voting can never bring 
communism, that mass action, revolution, is the way. 
Follow in the footsteps of Russia. The capitalist state 
in America (the government of the United States), must 
be destroyed, and they say it should be done by the mass 
revolutionary political strike. 

Both the Communist Party and the Communist Labor 
Party look upon the I. W. W. as the labor base of their 
movement. 

In any mention of revolutionary industrial unionism 
in this country, there must be recognized the immense 



246 THE NEW WORLD 

effect upon the American labor movement of the propa- 
ganda and example of the Industrial Workers of the 
World, whose long and valiant struggles and heroic sac- 
rifices in the class war have earned the respect and af- 
fection of all workers everywhere. 

The I. W. W. are not only the enemy of the nation 
but the foe of American organized labor. The I. W. W. 
have written their criminal record in almost every state 
in the union. In their song book, on page 18, we find this 
degenerate song: 

Mr. Shark, you grafter, 

You're the feller I'm after, 

For I mean to comb your hair with this piece of pipe. 

See the shark to me is walking, 

Soon this gas pipe will be talking, 

Then he'll remember me. 

Vincent St. John in his "History, Structure, and 
Methods of the I. W. W." says : 

The I. W. W. aim to use any and all tactics that will get 
the results sought with the least expenditure of time and 
energy. The tactics used are determined solely by the 
power of the organization to make good in their use. The 
question of right and wrong does not concern us. 

It was the I. W. W. that called upon the workers of 
America not to fight for the flag but to call general 
strikes and weaken the country during the .war. Hay- 
wood, the father of the movement, declared : "We don't 
care for the flag and we are against patriotism; there 
is only one flag in the world for us and that is the 'Red' 
flag." 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 247 

In November, 1916, the I. W. W. Convention in Chi- 
cago adopted this resolution: 

We openly declare ourselves the determined opponents of 
all nationalistic sectionalism or patriotism. 

By their own words we have three Bolshevist groups 
in the United States. They are organized and at work. 
They have declared war upon the government. They 
represent a menace to life and liberty, to peace and se- 
curity. By one emblem they all swear — the "Red" flag — 
the danger signal of violence, treachery, and revolution. 
Lincoln said that a nation could not endure half free and 
half slave. The people of the United States are at the 
crossroads. Our Republic cannot go on, part of it under 
the Stars and Stripes, and part of it under the "Red" 
flag. Now is the time for the roll call. The issue must 
be met. There is no room for compromise. Those who 
seek to justify or apologize for these propagandists of 
terror, should be silenced. In these trying days of re- 
construction patience wearies when sick sentimentalists 
try to condone the treason of men who seek to set our 
house afire. 

Some prominent men and women have come to the 
defense of the Bolsheviki in America. They have gone 
farther than defending the outlaws ; they have charged 
the government with intolerance, because loyal servants 
of law and order insist upon breaking up these plots 
against the life of the country. Some of these mis- 
guided citizens have raised the cry that free speech and 
the right of free assembly are being denied citizens of 



248 THE NEW WORLD 

the Republic. Where and when has free speech been 
denied in the United States? What is free speech? 
Surely the Constitution does not license advocating the 
overthrow of the government by force and violence. 
Free speech never gave man the right to bear false wit- 
ness against his neighbor. If a man, to amuse himself, 
cries "Fire" in a crowded theater and thereby provokes 
a stampede, resulting in the trampling to death of women 
and children, he cannot escape responsibility for his act 
on the ground that he was exercising his Constitutional 
right of free speech. If a group of men meet for the 
purpose of advocating the seizure of my home, urging 
my murder if I resist, such a meeting could not be justi- 
fied under the right of free assembly nor could such 
criminal speech be said to be lawful free speech. When 
men meet in the United States and advocate the over- 
throw of the government by mass action they are guilty 
of a crime one hundred and ten million times greater 
than the crime of one who advocates the seizure of an 
individual's home by force. 

Some who pretend to be good citizens complain that 
the government is destroying the freedom of asylum 
guaranteed to the oppressed of all lands, when aliens are 
deported, after having been adjudged guilty of advocat- 
ing the overthrow of the government by force. The cry 
goes up that we are deporting aliens when we are deport- 
ing enemies. 

It might be well for those who give of their time and 
prominence to the defense of the Bolsheviki and I. W. 
W. in the United States to give a moment's thought to 



BOLSHEVISM IN THE UNITED STATES 249 

the 70,000 brave lads who sleep in France, our dead who 
gave all for the flag and country these outlaws seek to 
disgrace and destroy. It might be well to remember that 
the Paris Commune grew out of a "broadened and 
deepened strike." 



CHAPTER XX 
THE NEW WORLD 

From the beginning the problem of life has been to 
secure enough to eat, to wear, a decent place in which to 
live, fresh air and sunshine, a chance to get an educa- 
tion, reasonable hours of work in sanitary and safe sur- 
roundings, an interest in work that robs toil of machine 
monotony, time for recreation and study, opportunity to 
know and understand and enjoy the finer and better 
things of life, such as the woods, the flowers, nature, 
music, poetry, art, the sublime works of God and man — 
this is the passion of the human heart, the longing of 
every soul, the goal of mankind's dream. It is for these 
things men work. These desires live in all men. Some 
of them do not know that these are the cravings that 
keep them restless. Others do not realize that without 
these surging impulses progress would be impossible and 
this would be a sad old world. 

In quest of such a free life every fight has been 
fought, every burden carried, sacrifices have been made, 
martyrs have died. On this hope religion is built. The 
struggle for a better and nobler and happier to-morrow 
is throbbing in the unrest of to-day. 

The human race is on its way. It knows where it is 

250 



THE NEW WORLD 251 

going. It has reached political liberty. To-day men are 
politically free. The vote of the humblest counts as 
much as the vote of the most powerful. All men have 
an equal say in selecting their servants who make and 
enforce the law. Election day is common hiring day, 
the candidate for office is only an applicant for a job. 
The voters, rich and poor, have an equal voice in the 
hiring of the men who make up the government. The 
highest expression of political freedom is found in the 
basic principle of our government, that all just powers 
are derived from the consent of the governed. Achiev- 
ing political liberty pointed the way to complete freedom 
and provided a peaceful, orderly manner of attaining it. 
Our political freedom outlaws force and violence. 

But political freedom and actual freedom do not mean 
the same thing. A man can be politically free and starve 
and through no fault of his own. A hungry man, an 
overworked, an underfed man is not a free man. In the 
New World which is in the making men must be eco- 
nomically free, and by that I mean that a mere existence 
must give way to a real life. We must have fewer men 
with more than they can possibly use, and all who work 
are entitled to enough of the world's good to live on a 
plane higher than animals. Distribution must be moral 
and equitable. Man must be secure in his toil, free from 
the fear of starvation. Yes, even more, he must have 
his chance to look up and he has not it, when he lives in 
the category of a commodity. His job must be something 
more than a sweating place. 

The problem is man — the man at the bottom. Sup- 



252 THE NEW WORLD 

pose he has not an education. Whose fault is that ? He 
is still a human being and in his way, a way not of his 
making, he wants a human place in life. He is blood 
and bone and muscle and brain and nerves; he has a 
heart, too, and a soul, we are told. The worker marries, 
he assumes the blood and legal duty of making a home. 
Government tells him to marry. Marriage is the nor- 
mal state of man, the home is the real unit of society. 
Religion says that it is the moral state of man. Children 
come. He mus't make a home for them, feed, clothe and 
educate them. He has but one thing to give the world 
in exchange for these things his family must have ; it is 
his labor and in return for his toil he is handed a pay 
envelope. If its content is not sufficient to take care of 
his family what can he do ? He cannot steal to make up 
the deficiency, for the law writes that down "Larceny." 
He cannot beg, for that is vagrancy. He cannot cut 
down the size of his family to fit his wages, for that is 
murder. He is up against it and his family pays the 
price of his bankruptcy. The world pays a still greater 
price — the standard of living is lowered, immorality, 
crime, ignorance are the by-products. 

Wages and distribution are the same thing to the 
worker. His fight is for more wages. The employer 
is interested in dividends and he fights to keep the wage 
scale down. Both seek to use force, the worker the 
power of numbers, the capitalist the power of money. 
One says I will break you, the other replies I will starve 
you out. Force never settled anything. Might is a poor 
doctrine to follow in solving disputes between labor and 



THE NEW WORLD 253 

capital. Any lasting and successful solution must be 
based upon right, justice. 

There is a basis of settlement that is moral; it is the 
standard of living. All of the people are interested in 
the standard of living in America. It is sound public 
policy to consider wage agreements from the point of 
view of a decent standard of living. Such a basis in- 
cludes more than enough to eat, it embraces living rights. 
It makes effective the guarantee that all citizens are enti- 
tled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

The right to organize is part of the free man's liberty ; 
economically it is part of his security. We have had 
many unnecessary labor wars in America over this ques- 
tion. The time has come for the complete recognition 
of this right and the recognition of labor's right to or- 
ganize should be made in good faith. It will not do to 
acknowledge this right in the toiler and then seek to de- 
stroy his union by underhand methods. The time for 
right thinking and square dealing is here. 

The right to strike must not be prohibited. Such a 
legal prohibition would not cure industrial discontent; it 
would only aggravate it. The right to cease work is 
an essential liberty given to all men by the Constitution. 
We must get at the cause of the strike if we are to make 
any headway toward peace. Back of the strike is a 
grievance, real or fancied. We should search it out and 
this requires conference, examination of the facts and 
a machinery to bring about justice between the parties. 
The peace table should be substituted for the pitched 
battle. Collective bargaining is only granting to the work- 



254 THE NEW WORLD 

ingmen a voice in their own affairs. The voices of thou- 
sands of unorganized workingmen are a whisper while 
the voice of an employer is a shout. Men in all walks 
of life use the principle of dealing through their chosen 
representatives and it works ; our government is built on 
this principle. We elect representatives to act for us. 
Why should workingmen not have the right to pick their 
own representatives and deal with their employers in the 
making of wage scales and working conditions? 

The group representing the public in the President's 
Industrial Conference recently wrote the following con- 
clusion : 

We believe that the right of the workers to organize for 
the purpose of collective bargaining with their employers, 
through representatives of their own choosing, cannot be 
denied or assailed. As representatives of the public we can 
interpret this right only in the sense that wage-earners must 
be free to choose what organizations or associations, if any, 
they will join for this purpose. 

Property rights must be made safe; human rights 
must be made secure. When a clash comes between the 
two it is the duty of government to resolve any doubt 
in favor of the rights of man. Lincoln, in his annual 
message to Congress, December 3, 1861, wrote: "Labor 
is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only 
the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor 
had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, 
and deserves much higher consideration." This truth 
might well find lodgment in the minds of employers, 
when in this day of unrest they take up with their em- 



THE NEW WORLD 255 

ployees the question of finding a new method of adjust- 
ing differences. 

The law has given more consideration to the protec- 
tion of property rights than it has to the safeguarding 
of human beings. If a man's property is threatened with 
injury the courts are open to him, and upon application 
he can secure a writ of injunction restraining the threat- 
ened damage. Back of this writ is the full power of the 
government, the police, the sheriff, the militia and the 
army. If a worker's happiness and life, and the happi- 
ness, health, and Jiopes of his wife and children are 
menaced because his wages are not sufficient to meet 
the high cost of living, the law has provided him and his 
with no protection against a danger that is not of his 
making. The worker has little, if anything, to do with 
the high cost of living. When the cost of living is 
greater than his earning power, he and his family are 
threatened with an irreparable injury. Even if the dam- 
age to him is obvious and he could prove that the em- 
ployer is making excess profits while he and his are 
hungry and cold, he cannot go into a court of law and 
ask relief. 

Notwithstanding the progress we have made in many 
things, the strike is still the only legal method open to 
the workers by which they can compel a hearing. Until 
some machinery is devised that will make for industrial 
democracy, the strike will continue as labor's weapon. 
It is not because workingmen like the strike but because 
it is the only method they have. 

The strike falls heaviest on the backs of the toilers. 



256 THE NEW WORLD 

They pay. Their families know its terrors. The strike 
is not even good sportsmanship, for the workers are not 
on even terms with the employers. When workingmen 
are locked out or when they strike, the hardships of it 
fall not only upon themselves. The brunt is borne 
by their children and wives. The employer seldom suf- 
fers hunger or cold, or does his family feel the pangs 
of the strike. With him it is almost always a financial 
loss at worst, only a matter of dollars and cents. 

Strikes lead to lawlessness on both sides. The em- 
ployer frequently hires criminal gunmen as strike- 
breakers; often idle hungry workingmen on strike have 
little regard for law and order. It is not that either em- 
ployer or worker is at heart a law-breaker ; the strike is 
war, and war knows no law. 

Strikes develop class consciousness and in so doing 
injure national solidarity. They divide the house against 
itself. They leave scars when lost or won. Beaten men 
do not return to their shops with any spirit of coopera- 
tion. On the contrary, they return with revenge in their 
hearts and they wait for another day. One strike breeds 
another. When the workmen win, the employer takes 
them back with a resolve to get even and to prepare for 
the next tussle. 

There are three parties to every strike and the third 
party, the public, always loses. Production is inter- 
rupted, the loss and waste must be paid for and the bill 
is always sent to the innocent victim, the public. 

The present world unrest will not have been without 
its compensations if in making acute the strained rela- 



THE NEW WORLD 257 

tions between labor and capital it is responsible for the 
establishment of a new and better relation between the 
workers and the employers of the world. Even at this 
moment when the peak of unrest has not as yet been 
reached, there are many signs that we are heading in the 
direction of a permanent industrial peace. The prelim- 
inary statement of the President's Industrial Conference 
shows signs of an agreement among the three groups, 
representing the people, the workers, and the employ- 
ers, on certain fundamentals which underlie the whole 
trouble. A few striking sentences from this statement 
measure the drift. 

The true relationship between employer and employee in 
large industries can be promoted only by the deliberate or- 
ganization of that relationship. Not only must the theory 
that labor is a commodity be abandoned but the concept of 
leadership must be substituted for that of mastership. New 
machinery of democratic representation must be erected to 
suit the conditions of present industry and restore a measure 
of personal contact and a sense of responsibility between 
employer and employee. The more recent development of 
such machinery with the cooperation of organized labor is a 
hopeful sign. Human fellowship in industry may be 

EITHER AN EMPTY PHRASE OR A LIVING FACT. There IS no 

magic formula. It can be a fact only if there is continued 
and sincere effort for mutual understanding and an unfail- 
ing recognition that there is a community of interest be* 
tween employer and employee. 

The sending to the scrap heap of the old "master and 
servant" idea is a good beginning. The recognition of 
labor as human rather than as a commodity marks the 



258 THE NEW WORLD 

end of the industrial day when labor was a chattel. No 
greater or more timely truth was ever penned than the 
statement that "human fellowship in industry jmay be 
either an empty phrase or a living fact." The way to 
industrial democracy is more democracy. One of the 
fundamental causes of industrial discontent has been the 
lack of the human, personal relationship between em- 
ployer and employee. The strike and the lock-out have 
created a mental state which has made enemies of men 
whose common interest should have made them friends. 

The workingmen's grievance is not merely a question 
of wages or hours of employment. It goes deeper. The 
workers want the joy and satisfaction of being part of 
the business. Hitherto they have been part of the busi- 
ness only in the sense that they have given it their lives. 
Work without an interest in the business is to the worker 
just what it would be to the employer, drudgery. Work- 
ingmen have the same human impulses and feelings that 
employers have. The monotony of being a worker with- 
out any interest in the job except to get the most salary 
possible for the least work makes real cooperation im- 
possible, and the quality and quantity of production is 
affected. 

Labor and capital should be a partnership. The two 
are like the blades of a scissors ; separate and apart they 
are meaningless and valueless; joined together, func- 
tioning harmoniously, they are useful and necessary to 
the world. This partnership idea must be put into prac- 
tice. The product of the partnership must be more fair- 
ly divided. There is no gainsaying that distribution has 



THE NEW WORLD 259 

been entirely in the hands of the employers and that the 
workers have suffered. 

In Prague I asked President Mazayrik for his opin- 
ion of the cause of unrest. He replied : 

Here we have a pile of gold and a few people in posses- 
sion of it, wasting it to their own injury and to the detri- 
ment of the world, while over here we have the many living 
in wretchedness and fear. 



I found an illustration in Paris. I had been looking 
at some famous paintings. The picture of a baby at- 
tracted me. It was of a child of the people. I was told 
it was worth $100,000. Later in the day, walking 
through the streets of the poorer districts in Paris, I 
saw dozens of children, any of whom might have posed 
for the picture, and these children were worth nothing. 
The painting hung in a beautiful building. These chil- 
dren lived in hovels. The work of the Master seems to 
have lost its value. 

There was a time when usury was not considered a 
social or legal crime. Money-lenders insisted they had 
the right to lend their money at any rate of interest they 
could obtain. They took advantage of the borrower's 
necessity and argued that it was their right to make such 
private contracts as they could. When saner minds 
urged that the state had an interest, that the public wel- 
fare was affected by the lender's exacting the last pound 
of flesh, a cry went up that the sacred right of private 
contract was being invaded ; that the liberty of man's re- 
lation with man was being violated. Yet, the laws 



26o THE NEW WORLD 

against usury came and they have remained. These laws 
provide that a lender shall be limited in the amount he 
receives as interest on his loans. To-day every one ad- 
mits the morality, the humanity, the wisdom and the 
justice of the usury laws. 

Men investing money in business injure the public wel- 
fare when they profiteer. We call it robbing the con- 
sumer. How much greater the larceny when the excess 
profits come from the sweat of the producer? 

Big business must be honestly organized. The capi- 
talization of the corporation should represent values 
actually invested. The investors are entitled to a reason- 
able return on their investment, to an insurance against 
the "rainy day;" they are entitled to set aside a per- 
centage of the earnings gradually to replace the capital 
invested. After this is done, the balance should go to 
the workers. Into the business they have put their lives ; 
out of it they are entitled to get more than a living. 
Their lives are spent in their work. Surely they have a 
right to a say in their own lives. 

No one with whom I have talked had the plans and 
specifications for the New Order, but many had in 
mind a general outline. The government, the working- 
men, the employers should cooperate in making the plan, 
in building the New World. 

Two plans have been suggested. Both are worthy of 
the careful consideration of Congress. They have a 
common object, to prevent strikes not by prohibiting the 
strike but by doing away with the need of the strike by 
providing a peaceful method of settling the questions 



THE NEW WORLD 261 

that are bound to arise between employers and em- 
ployees. These plans do not provide for compulsory ar- 
bitration. They avoid the pitfall of force and in its 
place invoke the power of public opinion to induce the 
arbitration of disputes and the acceptance of awards. 

One proposal comes from the President's Second In- 
dustrial Conference. The general structure is thus out- 
lined by the commission: 

1. The parties to the dispute may voluntarily submit 
their differences for settlement to a board, known as a 
regional adjustment conference. This board consists of four 
representatives selected by the parties and four others in 
their industry chosen by them and familiar with their prob- 
lems. The board is presided over by a trained government 
official, the regional chairman, who acts as a conciliator. If 
a unanimous agreement is reached, it results in a collective 
bargain having the same effect as if reached by joint organ- 
ization in the shops. 

2. If the regional conference fails to agree unanimously, 
the matter, with certain restrictions, goes, under the agree- 
ment of submission, to the national industrial board, unless 
the parties prefer the decision of an umpire selected by 
them. 

3. The voluntary submission to a regional adjustment 
conference carries with it an agreement by both parties that 
there shall be no interference with production pending the 
processes of adjustment. 

4. If the parties, or either of them, refuse voluntarily to 
submit the dispute to the processes of the plan of adjust- 
ment, a regional board of inquiry is formed by the regional 
chairman, of two employers and two employees from the 
industry, and not parties to the dispute. This board has 
the right, under proper safeguards, to subpoena witnesses 



262 THE NEW WORLD 

and records and the duty to publish its findings as a guide 
to public opinion. Either of the parties at conflict may join 
the board of inquiry on giving an undertaking that, so far 
as its side is concerned, it will agree to submit its contention 
to a regional adjustment conference, and if both join, a 
regional adjustment conference is automatically created. 

5. The National Industrial Board in Washington has 
general oversight of the working of the plan. 

6. The plan is applicable also to public utilities, but in 
such cases the government agency, having power to regulate 
the service, has two representatives in the adjustment con- 
ference. Provision is made for prompt report of its findings 
to the rate regulating body. 

7. The plan provides machinery for prompt and fair 
adjustment of wages and working conditions of government 
employees. It is especially necessary for this class of em- 
ployees, who should not be permitted to strike. 

8. The plan involves no penalties other than those im- 
posed by public opinion. It does not impose compulsory 
arbitration. It does not deny the right to strike. It does 
not submit to arbitration the policy of the "closed" or "open" 
shop. 

The other proposal comes from Secretary of Labor 
Wilson : 

OUTLINE OF PLAN FOR ADJUSTMENT OF LABOR 
DISPUTES 

There shall be created a Board of equal numbers of em- 
ployers and employees in each of the principal industries 
and a Board to deal with miscellaneous industries not hav- 
ing separate boards. The representatives of labor on such 
boards shall be selected in such manner as the workmen in 
the industry may determine. The representatives of the 



THE NEW WORLD 263 

employers shall be selected in such manner as the employers 
in the industry may determine. 

Whenever any dispute arises in any plant or series of 
plants that cannot be adjusted locally the question or ques- 
tions in dispute shall be referred to the Board created for 
that industry for adjustment. The Board shall also take 
jurisdiction whenever in the judgment of one-half of its 
members a strike or lockout is imminent. Decisions of the 
Board on questions of wages, hours of labor, or working 
conditions must be arrived at by unanimous vote. If the 
Board shall fail to come to a unanimous determination of 
any such question, the question in dispute shall be referred 
to a General Board appointed by the President of the United 
States in the following manner: 

One third of the number to be appointed in agreement 
with the organization or organizations of employers most 
representative of employers; one third of the number to be 
appointed in agreement with the organization or organiza- 
tions of labor most representative of labor; one-third of the 
number to be appointed by the President direct. 

Any question in dispute submitted to the General Board 
for adjudication shall be decided by the unanimous vote of 
the Board. If the General Board fails to arrive at a de- 
cision by unanimous vote the question or questions at issue 
shall be submitted to an umpire for determination. The 
umpire shall be selected by one of the two following proc- 
esses: First, by unanimous selection of the General Board. 
Failing of such selection, then the umpire shall be drawn by 
lot from a standing list of twenty persons named by the 
President of the United States as competent umpires in 
labor disputes. 

In all disputes that may be pending locally, or before the 
Industrial Board, or before the General Board, or before 
the umpire, the employers and employees shall each have the 



264 THE NEW WORLD 

right to select counsel of their own choice to represent them 
in presenting the matter in controversy. 

Whenever an agreement is reached locally, or by the 
unanimous vote of the Industrial Board, or by the unani- 
mous vote of the General Board, or by the decision of the 
umpire, the conclusion arrived at shall have all the force 
and effect of a trade agreement which employers and em- 
ployees shall be morally bound to accept and abide by. 

It is understood that this plan would not interfere with 
any system of joint wage conferences now in existence un- 
less or until the failure to agree in such a conference made 
a strike or lockout imminent. 

The man seeking justice must do justice; he who 
wants liberty must respect the rights of others ; if there 
is to be freedom, order and security, all must submit to 
the will of the majority. This is the Golden Rule, the 
rock upon which free government is built. Lincoln 
voiced the creed: 

Let every man remember that to violate the law is to 
trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the Charter 
of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the 
laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping 
babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in schools, in 
seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written in primers, 
spelling books, and in almanacs. Let it be preached from 
the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in 
courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political 
slogan of the nation. 

Let respect for the law fight the way in this day of 
unrest. If we do, we shall not stumble. We are facing 
East. The new day is breaking. A better understand- 
ing is in sight. Let no one stand in the way of com- 



THE NEW WORLD 265 

promise and concession. To avoid entangling alliances 
it is not necessary to abandon Europe. To put an end 
to war some open agreement of nations is necessary. Se- 
cret treaties must cease; the new internationalism must 
be a covenant insuring the democracy of the world. 
America's place is in the vanguard of the nations. We 
are a world power ; we cannot escape our place and our 
responsibility in the family of nations. 

"America for Americans, and all for humanity," 
might not make a bad foreign policy. 

The creed of our house is: "Man is his brother's 
keeper." 



APPENDICES 



APPENDIX I 

DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE LABORING 
AND EXPLOITED PEOPLE 1 

The form of the following declaration is explained 
by the fact that it was prepared for submission to the 
Constituent Assembly, which, however, broke up with- 
out acting upon it. 

The Central Executive Committee proclaims the fol- 
lowing basic principles: 

ARTICLE I 

The Constituent Assembly resolves: 

1. Russia is declared to be a Republic of Soviets of 
Workmen's, Soldiers', Peasants' Deputies. All the 
power in the center and in the provinces belongs to these 
Soviets. 

2. The Russian Soviet Republic is formed on the 
basis of a Free Union of Free Nations, as a Federa- 
tion of National Soviet Republics. 

1 The Declaration and Constitution of the Russian Soviet 
Federal Socialist Republic was submitted to the Constitutional 
Convention and because the Convention refused to adopt the 
Soviet Declaration it was dissolved by the "Red" Guard at 
the command of Lenin. 

269 



270 THE NEW WORLD 

ARTICLE II 

Taking as its fundamental task the abolition of any 
exploitation of men by men, the complete elimination 
of the division of society into classes, the ruthless sup- 
pression of exploiters, the establishment of a socialistic 
organization of society, and the victory of socialism in 
all countries, the Constituent Assembly resolves fur- 
ther: 

1. To effect the socialization of the land, private 
ownership of land is abolished, and the whole land fund 
is declared common national property and transferred 
to the laborers without compensation, on the basis of 
equalized use of the soil. All forests, minerals, and 
waters of state-wide importance as well as the whole 
inventory of animate and inanimate objects, all estates 
and agricultural enterprises, are declared national 
property. 

2. The Soviet law of labor control and the supreme 
board of National Economy are confirmed with the 
view of securing the authority of the toilers over the 
exploiters, as the first step to the complete transfer of 
all factories, mills, mines, railways and other means 
of production and transportation to the ownership of 
the Workmen's and Peasants' Soviet Republic. 

3. The transfer of all banks to the ownership of the 
Workers' and Peasants' state is confirmed, this being 
one of the conditions of the emancipation of the labor- 
ing masses from the yoke of capital. 

4. With a view to the destruction of the parasitic 



& 



APPENDICES 271 

classes of society and the organization of the national 
economy, universal labor service is established. 

5. In the interest of securing all the power for the 
laboring masses and the elimination of any possibility 
of the reestablishment of the power of the exploiters, 
the army of the toilers, the formation of a socialistic 
"Red" army of workmen and peasants, and the com- 
plete disarmament of the wealthy classes are decreed. 

ARTICLE III 

1. Expressing its inflexible determination to wrest 
humanity from the talons of financial capital and im- 
perialism, which have drenched the earth with blood in 
this most criminal of wars, the Constituent Assembly 
subscribes unanimously to the policy of abrogating se- 
cret treaties which has been adopted by the Soviet gov- 
ernment, the organization of the widest fraternalization 
with the workmen and peasants of the armies now war- 
ring against each other, and the securing, at any cost 
and by revolutionary means, of a democratic peace with- 
out annexations and indemnities, on the basis of free 
self-determination of peoples. 

2. For these same purposes the Constituent Assem- 
bly insists upon a complete break with the barbarous 
policy of bourgeois civilization, which built the pros- 
perity of the exploiters among the few chosen nations 
upon the enslavement of hundreds of millions of the 
laboring population in Asia, in the colonies in general, 
and in the small countries. 



i2>]2 THE NEW WORLD 

The Constituent Assembly welcomes the policy of 
the Council of People's Commissars, which has pro- 
claimed the complete independence of Finland, which 
has begun the removal of the troops from Persia, and 
which has declared the freedom of self-determination 
for Armenia. 

The Constituent Assembly views the Soviet law of 
the repudiation of the loans contracted by the Govern- 
ment of the Czar, by the land owners, and by the bour- 
geoisie, as the first blow to international banking, finance, 
and capital, and expresses its confidence that the Soviet 
authority will continue to pursue that course until the 
complete victory of rising international labor against 
the yoke of capital is attained. 

ARTICLE IV 

Having been elected on the basis of party lists made 
tip before the October revolution, when the people 
could not yet rise en masse against the exploiters and 
did not know the strength of the opposition when the 
latter defends its class privileges, and when the people 
had not yet practically undertaken the creation of a 
socialistic society, the Constituent Assembly would 
deem it radically wrong, even from a formal point of 
view, to set itself in opposition to the Soviets. 

In substance the Constituent Assembly considers that 
now, at the moment of the decisive battle of the people 
with their exploiters, there can be no place for the lat- 
ter in any of the organs of government. The power 



APPENDICES 273 

must belong wholly and exclusively to the toiling masses 
and their plenipotentiaries, the Soviets of Workmen's, 
Soldiers' and Peasants' Delegates. 

Supporting the Soviet Government and the Decrees 
of the Council of the People's Commissars, the Con- 
stituent Assembly recognizes that its tasks are com- 
pleted when it has framed a general statement of the 
fundamental basis of a socialistic reconstruction of so- 
ciety. 

At the same time, aiming at the creation of a really 
free and voluntary and consequently a more complete 
and lasting union of the laboring classes of all the na- 
tions of Russia, the Constituent Assembly confines 
itself to the establishment of the fundamental principles 
of federation of the Soviet Republic of Russia, leav- 
ing it to the Workmen and Peasants of each nation to 
decide independently at their own representative So- 
viet Congress, whether they wish to participate in the 
Federal Government and in the other Soviet Institu- 
tions, and on what basis. 

ABOLITION OF CLASSES AND CIVIL RANK 

1. All classes and class divisions of citizens, class 
privileges and disabilities, class organization and insti- 
tutions which have until now existed in Russia, as well 
as all civil ranks, are abolished. 

2. All designations (as merchant, nobleman, bur- 
gher, peasant, etc.), titles (as prince, count, etc.), and 
distinctions of civil ranks (privy, state, and other chan- 
cellors), are abolished, and one common designation is 



274 THE NEW WORLD 

established for all the population of Russia — citizen of 
the Russian Republic. 

3. The properties of the noblemen's class institu- 
tions are hereby transferred to corresponding Zemstvo 
self-governing bodies. 

4. The properties of the Merchants' and Burghers' 
Associations are hereby placed at the disposal of cor- 
responding municipal bodies. 

5. All class institutions, transactions, and archives 
are hereby transferred to the jurisdiction of correspond- 
ing municipal Zemstvo bodies. 

6. All corresponding clauses of the laws which have 
existed until now are abolished. 

7. This decree becomes effective from the day of 
its publication and is to be immediately put into effect 
by the local Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers' and Peas- 
ants' Deputies. 

Ya. Sverdlov 
President of the Central Executive Committee 

Vl. Oulianov (Lenin) 
President of the Council of People's Commissars 

Bonch-Bruyevich 

Director of the Affairs of the Council of People's 

Commissars 

N. GORBOUNOV 

Secretary to the Council. 
November 10, 1917. 



APPENDIX II 

A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CONGRESS 
ASSEMBLED 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
which have connected them with another, and to assume, 
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal 
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God 
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- 
kind requires that they should declare the causes which 
impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident — that all men 
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Crea- 
tor with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to se- 
cure these rights, governments are instituted among men, 
deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned; that, wherever any form of government becomes 
destructive of these ends it is the right of the people 
to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying 
its foundations on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely 
to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, 

275 



276 THE NEW WORLD 

will dictate that governments long established should 
not be changed for light and transient causes; and, ac- 
cordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are 
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than 
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which 
they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despot- 
ism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such 
government, and to provide new guards for their future 
security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these 
colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains 
them to alter their former systems of government. The 
history of the present king of Great Britain is a history 
of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct 
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over 
these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to 
a candid world : 

1. He has refused his assent to laws the most whole- 
some and necessary for the public good. 

2. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of 
immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in 
their operations till his assent should be obtained; and, 
when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend 
to them. 

3. He has refused to pass other laws for the accom- 
modation of large districts of people, unless those people 
would relinquish the right of representation in the Legis- 
lature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to 
tyrants only. 



APPENDICES 277 

4. He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository 
of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measures. 

5. He has dissolved representative houses repeat- 
edly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on 
the rights of the people. 

6. He has refused, for a long time after such disso- 
lutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legis- 
lative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned 
to the people at large for their exercise; the State re- 
maining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of 
invasions from without, and convulsions within. 

7. He has endeavored to prevent the population of 
these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for 
the naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass others 
to encourage their migration hither, and raising the 
conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

8. He has obstructed the administration of justice, 
by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary 
powers. 

9. He has made judges dependent on his will alone 
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and pay- 
ment of their salaries. 

10. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and 
sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and 
eat out their substance. 

11. He has kept among us in times of peace, stand- 
ing armies, without the consent of our Legislatures. 



278 THE NEW WORLD 

12. He has affected to render the military indepen- 
dent of, and superior to, the civil power. 

13. He has combined with others to subject us to a 
jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowl- 
edged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of 
pretended legislation; 

14. For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us; 

15. For protecting them, by a mock trial, from pun- 
ishment for any murders which they should commit on 
the inhabitants of these States; 

16. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the 
world ; 

17. For imposing taxes on us without our consent; 

18. For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits 
of a trial by jury; 

19. For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for 
pretended offenses; 

20. For abolishing the free system of English laws 
in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbi- 
trary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as 
to render it at once an example and fit instrument for 
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; 

21. For taking away our charters, abolishing our 
most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the 
forms of our governments ; 

22. For suspending our own Legislatures, and de- 
claring themselves invested with power to legislate for 
us in all cases whatsoever. 



APPENDICES 279 

23. He has abdicated government here, by declaring 
us out of his protection, and waging war against us. 

24. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, 
burned our towns and destroyed the lives of our people. 

25. He is at this time transporting large armies of 
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, des- 
solation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances 
of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most 
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a 
civilized nation. 

26. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken 
captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their 
country, to become the executioners of their friends and 
brethren, or to fal themselves by their hands. 

2J. He has excited domestic insurrection among us, 
and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our 
frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known 
rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction of all 
ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned 
for redress in the most humble terms ; our repeated peti- 
tions have been answered only by repeated injury. A 
prince whose character is thus marked by every act 
which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a 
free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our 
British brethren. We have warned them, from time to 
time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an un- 
warrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded 
them of the circumstances of our emigration and settle- 



2 8o THE NEW WORLD 

ment here. We have appealed to their native justice and 
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of 
our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and 
correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice 
of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, 
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separa- 
tion, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind — * 
enemies in war; in peace, friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United 
States of America in general Congress assembled, ap- 
pealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rec- 
titude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the 
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly 
publish and declare that these united colonies are, and 
of right ought to be, free and independent States; that 
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
crown, and that all political connection between them 
and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally 
dissolved, and that, as free and independent States, they 
have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract 
alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and 
things which independent States may of right do. And 
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance 
of the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually 
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor. 



APPENDIX III 



CONSTITUTION 
(Fundamental Law) 



The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. Resolutions 

of the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets, adopted 

July 10, 1918. 

The declaration of rights of the laboring and ex- 
ploited people (approved by the third All-Russian Con- 
gress of Soviets in January, 1918), together with the 
Constitution of the Soviet Republic, approved by the 
fifth Congress, constitutes a single fundamental law of 
the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

This fundamental law becomes effective upon the pub- 
lication of the same in its entirety in the "Izvestia of the 
All-Russian General Executive Committee." It must 
be published by all organs of the Soviet government and 
must be posted in a prominent place in every Soviet 
institution. 

The fifth Congress instructs the People's Commissa- 
riat of Education to introduce in all schools and educa- 
tional institutions of the Russian Republic the study and 
explanation of the basic principles of this Constitution. 

281 



z%2 THE NEW WORLD 

ARTICLE ONE. 
Declaration of Rights of the Laboring and Exploited People. 

Chapter One. 

1. Russia is declared to be a Republic of the Soviets 
of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. All the 
central and local power belongs to these Soviets. 

2. The Russian Soviet Republic is organized on the 
basis of a free union of free nations, as a federation of 
Soviet national Republics. 

Chapter Two. 

3. Bearing in mind as its fundamental problem the 
abolition of exploitation of men by men, the entire abo- 
lition of the division of the people into classes, the sup- 
pression of exploiters, the establishment of a Socialist 
society, and the victory of socialism in all lands, the 
third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Sol- 
diers' and Peasants' Deputies further resolves: 

a. For the purpose of realizing the socialization of 
land, all private property in land is abolished, and the 
entire land is declared to be national property and is to 
be apportioned among husbandmen without any compen- 
sation to the former owners, in the measure of each one's 
ability to till it. 

b. All forests, treasures of the earth, and waters of 
general public utility, all implements whether animate 
or inanimate, model farms and agricultural enterprises 
are declared to be national property. 



APPENDICES 283 

c. As a first step toward complete transfer of owner- 
ship to the Soviet Republic of all factories, mills, mines, 
railways and other means of production and transporta- 
tion, the Soviet law for the control by workmen and the 
establishment of the Supreme Soviet of National Econ- 
omy is hereby confirmed, so as to assure the power of 
the workers over the exploiters. 

d. With reference to international banking and fin- 
ance, the third Congress of Soviets is discussing the 
Soviet decree regarding the annulment of loans made 
by the Government of the Czar, by landowners and the 
bourgeoisie, and it trusts that the Soviet government will 
firmly follow this course until the final victory of the 
international workers' revolt against the oppression of 
capital. 

e. The transfer of all banks into the ownership of 
the Workers' and Peasants' government, as one of the 
conditions of the liberation of the toiling masses from 
the yoke of capital, is confirmed. 

f. Universal obligation to work is introduced for the 
purpose of eliminating the parasitic strata of society and 
organizing the economic life of the country. 

g. For the purpose of securing the working classes 
in the possession of the complete power, and in order to 
eliminate all possibility of restoring the power of the 
exploiters, it is decreed that all toilers be armed, and 
that a Socialist "Red" Army be organized and the proper- 
tied class be disarmed. 



284 THE NEW WORLD 

Chapter Three. 

4. Expressing its absolute resolve to liberate mankind 
from the grip of capital and imperialism, which flooded 
the earth with blood in this present most criminal of all 
wars, the third Congress of Soviets fully agrees with 
the Soviet government in its policy of breaking secret 
treaties, or organizing on a wide scale the frater- 
nization of the workers and peasants of the bel- 
ligerent armies, and of making all efforts to conclude 
a general democratic peace without annexations or in- 
demnities, upon the basis of the free determination of 
the people. 

5. It is also to this end that the third Congress of 
Soviets insists upon putting an end to the barbarous 
policy of the bourgeois civilization which enables the ex- 
ploiters of a few chosen nations to enslave hundreds of 
millions of the toiling population of Asia, of the colonies 
and of small countries generally. 

6. The third Congress of Soviets hails the policy of 
the Council of People's Commissars in proclaiming the 
full independence of Finland, in withdrawing troops 
from Persia, and in proclaiming the right of Armenia 
to self-determination. 

Chapter Four. 

7. The third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of 
Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies believes that 
now, during the progress of the decisive battle between 
the proletariat and its exploiters, the exploiters cannot 






APPENDICES 285 

hold a position in any branch of the Soviet government. 
The power must belong entirely to the toiling masses and 
to their plenipotentiary representatives — the Soviets of 
Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. 

8. In its effort to create a league — free and volun- 
tary, and for that reason all the more complete and 
secure — of the working classes of all the peoples of Rus- 
sia, the third Congress of Soviets merely establishes 
the fundamental principles of the federation of Rus- 
sian Soviet Republics, leaving to the workers and 
peasants of every people to decide the following 
question at their plenary sessions of their Soviets; 
whether or not they desire to participate, and on 
what basis, in the federal government and other federal 
Soviet institutions. 

ARTICLE TWO. 

General Provision of the Constitution of the Russian So- 
cialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

Chapter Five 

9. The fundamental problem of the Constitution of 
the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic involves, 
in view of the present transition period, the establish- 
ment of a dictatorship of the urban and rural proletariat 
and the poorest peasantry in the form of a powerful 
All-Russian Soviet authority, for the purpose of abol- 
ishing the exploitation of men by men and of introducing 
Socialism, in which there will be neither a division into 
classes nor a state of autocracy. 



286 THE NEW WORLD 

10. ' The Russian Republic is a free Socialist society 
of all the working people of Russia. The entire power, 
within the boundaries of the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic, belongs to all the working people of 
Russia, united in urban and rural Soviets. 

11. The Soviets of those regions which differentiate 
themselves by a special form of existence and national 
character may unite in autonomous regional unions, 
ruled by the local Congress of the Soviets and their 
executive organs. 

These autonomous regional unions participate in the 
Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic upon the 
basis of a federation. 

12. The supreme power of the Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic belongs to the All-Russian 
Congress of Soviets, and, to the All-Russian Central 
Executive Committee. 

13. For the purpose of securing to the toilers real 
freedom of conscience, the church is to be separated 
from the state and the school from the church, and the 
right of religious and anti-religious propaganda is ac- 
corded to every citizen. 

14. For the purpose of securing the freedom of ex- 
pression to the toiling masses, the Russian Socialist Fed- 
erated Soviet Republic abolishes all dependence of the 
press upon capital, and turns over to the working people 
and the poorest peasantry all technical and material 
means of publication of newspapers, pamphlets, books, 
etc., and guarantees their free circulation throughout the 
country. 



APPENDICES 287 

15. For the purpose of enabling the workers to hold 
free meetings, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic offers to the working class and to the poorest 
peasantry furnished halls, and takes care of their heating 
and lighting appliances. 

16. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, 
having crushed the economic and political power of the 
propertied classes and having thus abolished all obstacles 
which interfered with the freedom of organization and 
action of the workers and peasants, offers assistance, 
material and other, to the workers and the poorest peas- 
antry in their effort to unite and organize. 

17. For the purpose of guaranteeing to the workers 
real access to knowledge, the Russian Socialist Fede- 
rated Soviet Republic sets itself the task of furnishing 
full and general free education to the workers and the 
poorest peasantry. 

18. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic 
considers work the duty of every citizen of the Repub- 
lic, and proclaims as its motto : "He shall not eat who 
does not work." 

19. For the purpose of defending the victory of the 
great peasants' and workers' revolution, the Russian 
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic recognizes the duty 
of all citizens of the Republic to come to the defense of 
their Socialist Fatherland, and it, therefore, introduces 
universal military training. The honor of defending the 
revolution with arms is given only to the toilers, and the 
non-toiling elements are charged with the performance 
of other military duties. 



288 THE NEW WORLD 

20. In consequence of the solidarity of the toilers 
of all nations, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic grants all political rights of Russian citizens to 
foreigners who live in the territory of the Russian Re- 
public and are engaged in toil and who belong to the toil- 
ing class. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Re- 
public also recognizes the right of local Soviets to grant 
citizenship to such foreigners without complicated for- 
mality. 

21. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Repub- 
lic, recognizing equal rights of all citizens, irrespective 
of their racial or national connections, proclaims all pri- 
vileges on this ground, as well as oppression of national 
minorities, to be in contradiction with the fundamental 
laws of the Republic. 

23. Being guided by the interests of the working 
class as a whole, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic deprives all individuals and groups of rights 
which could be utilized by them to the detriment of the 
Socialist Revolution. 

ARTICLE THREE. 
Construction of the Soviet Power. 
A. Organization of the Central Power. 

Chapter Six 

The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants', 
Cossacks' and Red Army Deputies. 

24. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets is composed 
of representatives of urban Soviets (one delegate for 



APPENDICES 289 

25,000 voters), and of representatives of the provincial 
(Gubernia) congresses of Soviets (one delegate for 125,- 
000 inhabitants). 

Note 1. In case the Provincial Congress is not called 
before the All-Russian Congress is convoked, delegates 
for the latter are sent directly from the country (Ouezd) 
Congress. 

Note 2. In case the Regional (Oblast) Congress is 
convoked indirectly, previous to the convocation of the 
All-Russian Congress, delegates for the latter may be 
sent by the Regional Congress. 

26. The All-Russian Congress is convoked by the 
All-Russian Central Executive Committee at least twice 
a year. 

27. A special All-Russian Congress is convoked by 
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee upon its 
own initiative, or upon the request of local Soviets hav- 
ing not less than one third of the entire population of 
the Republic. 

28. The All-Russian Congress elects an All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee of not more than 200 mem- 
bers. 

29. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee is 
entirely responsible to the All-Russian Congress of So- 
viets. 

30. In the periods between the convocation of the 
Congresses, the All-Russian Central Executive Commit- 
tee is the supreme power of the Republic. 



290 THE NEW WORLD 

Chapter Seven , 

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

31. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee is 
the supreme legislative, executive, and controlling organ 
of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

32. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
directs in a general way the activity of the workers' and 
peasants' government and of all organs of the Soviet 
authority in the country, and it coordinates and regulates 
the operation of the Soviet Constitution and the resolu- 
tions of the All-Russian Congresses and of the central 
organs of the Soviet power. 

33. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
considers and enacts all measures and proposals intro- 
duced by the Soviet of People's Commissars or by the 
various departments, and it also issues its own decrees 
and regulations. 

34. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
convokes the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, at which 
time the Executive Committee reports on its activity and 
on general questions. 

35. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
forms a Council of People's Commissars for the purpose 
of general management of the affairs of the Russian So- 
cialist Federated Soviet Republic, and it also forms de- 
partments (People's Commissariats) for the purpose of 
conducting various branches. 



APPENDICES 291 

36. The members of the All-Russian Central Execu- 
tive Committee work in the various departments (Peo- 
ple's Commissariats) or execute special orders of the 
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

Chapter Eight 
The Council of People's Commissar. 

37. The Council of People's Commissars is entrusted 
with the general management of the affairs of the Rus- 
sian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

38. For the accomplishment of this task the Council 
of People's Commissars issues decrees, resolutions, or- 
ders, and, in general, takes all steps necessary for the 
proper and rapid conduct of government affairs. 

39. The Council of People's Commissars notifies im- 
mediately the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
of all its orders and resolutions. 

40. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
has the right to revoke or suspend all orders and resolu- 
tions of the Council of People's Commissars. 

41. All orders and resolutions of the Council of Peo- 
ple's Commissars of great significance are turned over 
for considerational and final approval to the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee. 

Note : Measures requiring immediate execution may 
be enacted directly by the Council of People's Commis- 
sars. 



2 9 2 THE NEW WORLD 

42. The members of the Council of People's Com- 
missars stand at the head of the various People's Com- 
missariats. 

43. There are seventeen People's Commissars: 

a. Foreign Affairs. 

b. Army. 

c. Navy. 

d. Interior. 

e. Justice. 

f. Labor. 

g. Social Welfare, 
h. Education, 
i. Post and Telegraph, 
j. National Affairs, 
k. Finances. 

1. Ways of Communication, 

m. Agriculture, 

n. Commerce and Industry, 

o. National Supplies, 

p. State Control. 

q. Supreme Soviet of National Economy, 

r. Public Health. 

44. Every Commissar has a College (Committee) of 
which he is the President, and the members of which are 
appointed by the Council of People's Commissars. 

45. A People's Commissar has the individual right to 
decide all questions under the jurisdiction of his Com- 



APPENDICES 293 

missariat, and he is to report on his decision to the 
College. If the College does not agree with the Com- 
missar on some decisions, the former may, without stop- 
ping the execution of the decision, complain of it to the 
executive members of the Council of People's Commis- 
sars to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 
Individual members of the College have this right also. 

46. The Council of People's Commissars is entirely 
responsible to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and 
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

47. The People's Commissars and the Colleges ol the 
People's Commissariats are entirely responsible to the 
Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee. 

48. The title of People's Commissar belongs only 
to members of the Council of People's Commissars, 
which is in charge of general affairs of the Russian So- 
cialist Federated Soviet Republic, and it cannot be used 
by any other representative of the Soviet power, either 
central or local. 

Chapter Nine 

Affairs in the Jurisdiction of the All-Russian Congress and 
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

49. The All-Russian Congress and the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee deal with questions of 
state, such as : 

a. Ratification and amendment of the Constitution of 
the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 



294 THE NEW WORLD 

b. General direction of the entire interior and for- 
eign policy of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic. 

c. Establishing and changing boundaries, also ceding 
territory belonging to the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic. 

d. Establishing boundaries for regional Soviet unions 
belonging to the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Re- 
public, also settling disputes among them. 

e. Admission of new members to the Russian Social- 
ist Federated Soviet Republic, and recognition of the 
secession of any part of it. 

f. The general administrative division of the terri- 
tory of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic 
and the approval o£ regional unions. 

g. Establishing and changing of weights, measures 
and money denominations in the Russian Socialist Fede- 
rated Soviet Republic. 

h. Foreign relations, declaration of war, and ratifica- 
tion of peace treaties. 

i. Making loans, signing commercial treaties, and 
financial agreements. 

j. Working out a basis and a general plan for the 
national economy and for various branches in the Rus- 
sian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

k. Approval of the budget of the Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic. 

1. Levying taxes and establishing the duties of citiz- 
ens to the state. 



APPENDICES 295 

m. Establishing the bases for the organization of 
armed forces. 

n. State legislation, judicial organization and proce- 
dure, civil and criminal legislation, etc. 

o. Appointment and dismissal of the individual Peo- 
ple's Commissars or the entire Council ; also approval of 
the President of the Council of People's Commissars. 

p. Granting and canceling Russian citizenship and 
fixing rights of foreigners. 

q. The right to declare individual and general am- 
nesty. 

50. Besides the above-mentioned questions, the All- 
Russian Congress of the All-Russian Central Executive 
Committee have charge of all other affairs which ac- 
cording to their decision, require their attention. 

51. The following questions are solely under the ju- 
risdiction of the All-Russian Congress: 

a. Ratification and amendment of the fundamental 
principles of the Soviet Constitution. 

b. Ratification of peace treaties. 

52. The decision of questions indicated in Items c 
and h of Paragraph 49 may be made by the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee only in case it is impossible 
to convoke the Congress. 

Chapter Ten 

B. Organization of the Local Soviets. 
The Congress of the Soviets. 

53. Congresses of Soviets are composed as follows : 
a. Regional: Of representatives of the urban and 



296 THE NEW WORLD 

county Soviets, one representative for 25,000 inhabitants 
of the county, and one representative for 5,000 voters 
of the cities — but not more than 500 representatives for 
the entire region — or of representatives of the provi- 
sional Congresses, chosen on the same basis, if such a 
Congress meets before the regional Congress. 

b. Provincial (Gubernia) : Of representatives of 
urban and rural (Volost) Soviets, one representative for 
10,000 inhabitants from the rural districts, and one rep- 
resentative for 2,000 voters in the city; altogether not 
more than 300 representatives for the entire province. 
In case the county Congress meets before the provincial, 
election takes place on the same basis, but by the county 
Congress instead of the rural. 

c. County: Of representatives of rural Soviets, one 
delegate for each 1,000 inhabitants, but not more than 
300 delegates for the entire county. 

d. Rural: (Volost): Of representatives of all vil- 
lage Soviets in the Volost one delegate for ten members 
of the Soviet. 

Note 1. Representatives of urban Soviets which have 
a population of not more than 10,000 persons participate 
in the county Congress; village Soviets of districts of 
less than 1,000 inhabitants unite for the purpose of elect- 
ing delegates to the county Congress. 

Note 2. Rural Soviets of less than ten members send 
one delegate to the rural (Volost) Congress. 

54. Congresses of the Soviets are convoked by the 
respective Executive Committees upon their own initia- 
tive, or upon request of local Soviets comprising not less 



APPENDICES 297 

than one third of the entire population of the given dis- 
trict. In any case they are convoked at least twice a 
year for regions, every three months for provinces and 
counties, and once a month for rural districts. 

55. Every Congress of Soviets (regional, provincial, 
county and rural) elects its Executive organ — an Execu- 
tive Committee the membership of which shall not ex- 
ceed: 

(a) For regions and provinces, 25; (b) for a county,, 
20; (c) for a rural district, 10. The Executive Com- 
mittee is responsible to the congress which elected it.. 

56. In the boundaries of the respective territories the: 
Congress is the supreme power ; during intervals between 
the convocations of the Congress, the executive Commit- 
tee is the supreme power. 

Chapter Eleven. 
The Soviets of Deputies. 

57. Soviets of Deputies are formed: 

a. In cities, one deputy for each 1,000 inhabitants; 
the total to be not less than 50 and not more than 1,000 
members. 

b. All other settlements (towns, villages, hamlets* 
etc.) of less than 10,000 inhabitants, one deputy for 
each 100 inhabitants ; the total to be not less than 3 and 
not more than 50 deputies for each settlement. 

Term of the deputy, three months. 
Note: In small rural sections, whenever possible, all 
questions shall be decided at general meetings of voters. 



298 THE NEW WORLD 

58. The Soviets of Deputies elects an Executive 
Committee to deal with current affairs ; not more than 5 
members for rural districts, one for every 50 members 
of the Soviets of cities, but not more than 15 and not 
less than 3 in the aggregate (Petrograd and Moscow 
not more than 40). The Executive Committee is en- 
tirely responsible to the Soviet which elected it. 

59. The Soviet of Deputies is convoked by the Exe- 
cutive Committee upon its own initiative, or upon the 
request of not less than one half of the membership of 
the Soviet ; in any case at least once a week in cities, and 
twice a week in rural sections. 

60. Within its jurisdiction the Soviet, and the cases 
mentioned in Paragraph 57. Note, the meeting of the 
voters, is the supreme power in the given district. 

Chapter Twelve. 
Jurisdiction of the Local Organs of the Soviets. 

61. Regional, provincial, county, and rural organs of 
the Soviet power and also the Soviets of Deputies have 
to perform the following duties: 

a. Carry out all orders of the respective higher or- 
gans of the Soviet power. 

b. Take all steps towards raising the cultural and 
economic standards of the given territory. 

c. Decide all questions of local importance within 
their respective territory. 

d. Coordinate all Soviet activity in their respective 
territory. 



APPENDICES 299 

62. The Congresses of Soviets and their Executive 
Committees have the right to control the activity of the 
local Soviets (i. e., the regional Congress controls all So- 
viets of the respective regions; the provincial of the 
respective province, with the exception of the urban 
Soviets, etc.) ; and the regional and provincial Con- 
gresses and their Executive Committees in addition have 
the right to overrule the decisions of the Soviets of their 
districts, giving notice in important cases to the central 
Soviet authority. 

63. For the purpose of performing their duties, the 
local Soviets, rural and urban, and the Executive Com- 
mittees form sections respectively. 

ARTICLE FOUR. 
The Right to Vote. 

Chapter Thirteen. 

64. The right to vote and to be elected to the Soviets 
is enjoyed by the following citizens, irrespective of reli- 
gion, nationality, domicile, etc., of the Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic, of both sexes, who shall have 
completed their eighteenth year by the day of election: 

a. All who have acquired the means of living through 
labor that is productive and useful to society, and also 
persons engaged in housekeeping, which enables the 
former to do productive work, i. e., laborers and em- 
ployees of all classes who are employed in industry, 
trade, agriculture, etc., and peasants and Cossacks, agri- 



3 oo THE NEW WORLD 

cultural laborers who employ no help for the purpose of 
making profits. 

b. Soldiers of the army and navy of the Soviets. 

c. Citizens of the two preceding categories who have 
to any degree lost their capacity to work. 

Note i : Local Soviets may, upon approval of the 
central power, lower the age standard mentioned herein. 

Note 2: Non-citizens mentioned in Paragraph 20 
(Article Two, Chapter Five) have the right to vote. 

65. The following persons enjoy neither the right 
to vote nor the right to be voted for, even though they 
belong to one of the categories enumerated above, 
namely : 

a. Persons who employ hired labor in order to obtain 
from it an increase in profits. 

b. Persons who have an income without doing any 
work, such as interest from capital, receipts from prop- 
erty, etc. 

c. Private merchants, trade and commercial brokers. 

d. Monks of clergy of all denominations. 

e. Employees and agents of the former police, the 
gendarme corps, and the Okhrana (Czar's secret ser- 
vice), also members of the former reigning dynasty. 

f . Persons who have in legal form been declared de- 
mented or mentally deficient, and also persons under 
guardianship. 

g. Persons who have been deprived by a Soviet of 
their rights of citizenship because of selfish or dishonor- 
able offenses, for the period fixed by the sentence. 



APPENDICES 301 

Chapter Fourteen. 
Elections. 

66. Elections are conducted according to custom on 
days fixed by the local Soviets. 

6j. Election takes place in the presence of an electing 
committee and the representative of the local Soviet. 

68. In case the representative of the Soviet cannot 
be present for valid causes, the chairman of the electing 
committee takes his place, and in case the latter is ab- 
sent, the chairman of the election meeting replaces him. 

69. Minutes of the proceedings and results of elec- 
tions are to be compiled and signed by the members of 
the electing committee and the representative of the 
Soviet. 

70. Detailed instructions regarding the election pro- 
ceedings and the participation in them of professional 
and other workers' organizations are to be issued by the 
local Soviets, according to the instructions of the All- 
Russian Central Executive Committee. 

Chapter Fifteen. 

The Checking and Cancellation of Elections and Recall of 
the Deputies. 

71. The respective Soviets receive all the records of 
the proceedings of the election. 

72. The Soviet appoints a commission to verify the 
elections. 

73. This commission reports on the results to the 
Soviets. 



3 02 THE NEW WORLD 

74. The Soviet decides the question when there is 
doubt as to which candidate is elected. 

75. The Soviet announces a new election if the elec- 
tion of one candidate or another cannot be determined. 

j6. If an election was irregularly carried on in its 
entirety, it may be declared void by a higher Soviet 
authority. 

yy. The highest authority in relation to questions of 
elections is the All-Russian Central Executive Commit- 
tee. 

78. Voters who have sent a deputy to the Soviet have 
the right to recall him, and to have a new election ac- 
cording to general provision. 

ARTICLE FIVE. 
The Budget. 

79. The financial policy of the Russian Socialist Fed- 
erated Soviet Republic in the present transition period 
of dictatorship of the proletariat, facilitates the funda- 
mental purpose of expropriation of the bourgeoisie and 
the preparation of conditions necessary for the equality 
of all citizens of Russia in the production and distribu- 
tion of wealth. To this end it sets forth as its task the 
supplying of the organs of the Soviet power with all 
necessary funds for local and state needs of the Soviet 
Republic, without regard to private property rights. 

80. The state expenditures and income of the Rus- 
sian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic are combined 
in the state budget. 

81. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets or the All- 



APPENDICES 303 

Russian Central Executive Committee determines what 
matters of income and taxation shall go to the state 
budget and what shall go to the local Soviets; they also 
set the limits of taxes. 

82. The Soviets levy taxes only for the local needs. 
The state needs are covered by the funds of the state 
treasury. 

83. No expenditure out of the state treasury not set 
forth in the budget of income and expense shall be made 
without a special order of the central power. 

84. The local Soviets shall receive credits from the 
proper People's Commissars out of the state treasury, 
for the purpose of making expenditures for general state 
needs. 

85. All credits allotted to the Soviets from the state 
treasury, and also credits approved for local needs, must 
be expended according to the estimates, and cannot be 
used for any other purposes without a special order of 
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the 
Soviet of People's Commissars. 

86. Local Soviets draw up semiannual and annual 
estimates of income and expenditure for local needs. 
The estimates of urban and rural Soviets participating 
in county congresses, and also the estimates of the 
county organs of the Soviet power, are to be approved 
by provincial and regional congresses or by their execu- 
tive committees; the estimates of the urban, provincial, 
and regional organs of the Soviets are to be approved 
by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and 
the Council of People's Commissars. 



■304 THE NEW WORLD 

87. The Soviets may ask for additional credits from 
the respective People's Commissariats for expenditures 
not set forth in the estimate, or where the allotted sum 
is insufficient. 

88. In case of an insufficiency of local funds for 
local needs, the necessary subsidy may be obtained from 
the state treasury by applying to the All-Russian Central 
Executive or the Council of People's Commissars. 

ARTICLE SIX. 

The Coat of Arms and Flag of the Russian Socialist Feder- 
ated Soviet Republic. 

Chapter Seventeen 

89. The coat of arms of the Russian Socialist Feder- 
ated Soviet Republic consists of a red background on 
which a golden scythe and a hammer are placed (cross- 
wise, handles downward) in sun-rays and surrounded 
by a wreath, inscribed: 

Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic 
Workers of the World, Unite! 

90. The commercial, naval, and army flag of the Rus- 
sian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic consists of a 
red cloth, in the left hand corner of which (on top, 
near the pole) there are in golden characters the letters 
R. S. F. S. R., on the inscription: Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic. 

Chairman of the fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets 
and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee — J. 
SeverdlofT. 



APPENDICES 305 

Executive Officers — All-Russian Central Executive 
Committee: T. I. Teedorowitch, F. A. Rosin, A. P. 
Rosenholz, A. C. Mitrofanoff, K. C. MaxinorT. 

Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Com- 
mittee — V. A. Avanessoff. 



APPENDIX IV 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATE3 OF 
AMERICA 

WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order 
to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure 
domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings 
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America. 

ARTICLE L— (Section i.) I. All legislative Pow- 
ers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the 
United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House 
of Representatives. 

(Section 2.) 1. The House of Representatives shall 
be composed of Members chosen every second Year by 
the People of the several States, and the Electors in each 
State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors 
of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. 

2. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not 
have attained to the Age of twenty-five Years, and been 
seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who 
shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

306 



APPENDICES 307 

3. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be appor- 
tioned among the several States which may be included 
within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, 
which shall be determined by adding to the whole Num- 
ber of free Persons, including those bound to Service 
for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, 
three-fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumera- 
tion shall be made within three Years after the first Meet- 
ing of the Congress of the United States, and within 
every subsequent Term of ten years, in such Manner as 
they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representa- 
tives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but 
each State shall have at Least one Representative; and 
until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New 
Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachu- 
setts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, 
Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virgi- 
nia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and 
Georgia three. 

4. When Vacancies happen in the Representation 
from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall 
issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall chuse their 
Speaker and other Officers ; and shall have the sole Pow- 
er of Impeachment. 

(Section 3.) I. The Senate of the United States 
shall be composed of two Senators from each State, 
chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and 
each Senator shall have one Vote. 



3 o8 THE NEW WORLD 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in Con- 
sequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as 
equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the 
Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expi- 
ration of the second Year, of the Second Class at the Ex- 
piration of the fourth Year, and the third Class at the 
Expiration of the sixth Year; so that one third may be 
chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by 
Resignation or otherwise, during the Recess of the Leg- 
islature of any State, the Executive thereof may make 
temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the 
Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. 

3. No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have 
attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years 
a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall 
be chosen. 

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be 
President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless 
they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and 
also a President pro tempore in the absence of the Vice 
President, or when he shall exercise the Office of Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all 
Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they 
shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President 
of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall pre- 
side: And no Person shall be convicted without the 
Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. 






APPENDICES 309 

7. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not ex- 
tend further than to removal from Office, and disqualifi- 
cation to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust, or 
Profit under the United States ; but the Party convicted 
shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to Indictment, 
Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law. 

(Section 4.) 1. The Times, Places and Manner of 
holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall 
be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; 
but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter 
such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing 
Senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every 
Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in 
December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different 
Day. 

(Section 5.) 1. Each House shall be the Judge of 
the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own 
Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a 
Quorum to do Business : but a smaller Number may ad- 
journ from day to day, and be authorized to compel the 
Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and 
under such Penalties as each House may provide. 

2. Each House may determine the Rules of its Pro- 
ceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, 
and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a 
Member. 

3. Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceed- 
ings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting 
such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; 



310 THE NEW WORLD 

and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House 
on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those 
Present, be entered on the Journal. 

4. Neither House, during the Session of Congress, 
shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more 
than three days, nor to any other Place than that in 
which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

(Section 6.) I. The Senators and Representatives 
shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be 
ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of 
the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Trea- 
son, Felony and Breach of Peace, be privileged from 
Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their 
respective Houses, and in going to and returning from 
the same ; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, 
they shall not be questioned in any other Place. 

2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the 
Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any 
civil Office under the Authority of the United States, 
which shall have been created, or the Emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased during such time; and 
no Person holding any Office under the United States, 
shall be a member of either House during his Continu- 
ance in Office. 

(Section 7.) 1. All Bills for raising Revenue shall 
originate in the House of Representatives ; but the Sen- 
ate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other 
Bills. ' 

2. Every Bill which shall have passed the House of 
Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes 



APPENDICES 311 

a Law, be presented to the President of the United 
States ; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall 
return it, with his Objections, to that House in which it 
shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at 
large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If 
after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House 
shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with 
the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall 
likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds 
of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such 
Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by 
Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting 
for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal 
of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be re- 
turned by the President within ten Days (Sunday ex- 
cepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the 
Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed 
it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its 
Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law. 

3. Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the 
Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives may be necessary (except on a question of Ad- 
journment), shall be presented to the President of the 
United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, 
shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, 
shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limita- 
tions prescribed in the Case of a Bill. 

(Section 8.) 1. The Congress shall have Power To 
lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to 



3 i2 THE NEW WORLD 

pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and 
general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, 
Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the 
United States; 

2. To borrow Money on credit of the United States ; 

3. To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and 
among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes ; 

4. To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, 
and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies 
throughout the United States; 

5. To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and 
of foreign Coin and fix the Standard of Weights and 
Measures ; 

6. To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting 
the Securities and current Coin of the United States ; 

7. To establish Post-Offices and post Roads; 

8. To promote the Progress of Science and useful 
Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and In- 
ventors the exclusive right to their respective Writings 
and Discoveries; 

9. To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme 
Court; 

10. To define and punish Piracies and Felonies com- 
mitted on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law 
of Nations; 

11. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and 
Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land 
and Water; 

12. To raise and support Armies, but no Appropria- 



APPENDICES 313 

tion of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term 
than two Years ; 

13. To provide and maintain a Navy; 

14. To make Rules for the Government and Regu- 
lation of the land and naval Forces; 

15. To provide for calling forth the Militia to exe- 
cute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrection and 
repel Invasions; 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplin- 
ing the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as 
may be employed in the Service of the United States, 
reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of 
the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia 
according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all Cases 
whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten 
Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, 
and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the 
Government of the United States, and to exercise like 
Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of 
the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, 
for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock- 
Yards, and other needful Buildings ; — And 

18. To make all Laws which shall be necessary and 
proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Pow- 
ers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in 
the Government of the United States, or in any 'Depart- 
ment or Officer thereof. 

(Section 9.) 1. The Migration or Importation of 
such Persons as any of the States now existing shall 



314 THE NEW WORLD 

think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the 
Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such 
Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. 

2. The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall 
not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or 
Invasion the public Safety may require it. 

3. No Bill of Attainder, or ex post facto Law shall 
be passed. 

4. No Capitation or other direct Tax shall be laid, 
unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration here- 
in before directed to be taken. 

5. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported 
from any State. 

6. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation 
of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over 
those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, 
one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties, in 
another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but 
in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a 
regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Ex- 
penditures of all public Money shall be published from 
time to time. 

8. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United 
States : And no Person holding any Office of Profit or 
Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Con- 
gress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, 
of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or for- 
eign State. 



APPENDICES 315 

(Section 10.) ' I. No State shall enter into any; 
Treaty, Alliance or Confederation; grant Letters of, 
Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; 
make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in 
Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post 
facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Con- 
tracts, or grant any title of Nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the Consent of the Con- 
gress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, 
except what may be absolutely necessary for executing 
its inspection Laws; and the net Produce of all Duties 
and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, 
shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United 
States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revi- 
sion and Control of the Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, 
lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops or Ships of War, 
in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Com- 
pact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or 
Engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such immi- 
nent Danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II.— (Section 1.) 1. The Executive 
Power shall be vested in a President of the United States 
of America. He shall hold his office during the Term of 
four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen 
for the same Term, be elected as follows : 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the 
Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, 
equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representa- 
tives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; 



316 THE NEW WORLD 

but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an 
Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall 
be appointed an Elector. 

3. The Electors shall meet in their respective States, 
and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at 
least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with) 
themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Per- 
sons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; 
which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United 
States, directed to the President of the Senate. The 
President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives, open all the Certi- 
ficates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person 
having the greatest number of Votes shall be the Presi- 
dent, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Num- 
ber of Electors appointed ; and if there be more than one 
who have such a Majority, and have an equal Number of 
Votes, then the House of Representatives shall imme- 
diately chuse, by Ballot one of them for President; and 
if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest 
on the List, the said House shall in like manner chuse 
the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes 
shall be taken by States, the Representation from each 
State having one vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall 
consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of 
the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be 
necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice 
of the President, the Person having the greatest Number 
of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. 



APPENDICES 317 

But if there should remain two or more who have equal 
Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the 
Vice-President. 

4. The Congress may determine the Time of chusing 
the Electors, and the day on which they shall give their 
Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the 
United States. 

5. No Person except a natural-born Citizen, or a Cit- 
izen of the United States at the time of the Adoption 
of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of 
President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that 
Office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty- 
five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within 
the United States. 

6. In Case of the Removal of the President from 
Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to dis- 
charge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the 
Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Con- 
gress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, 
Death, Resignation, or Inability both of the President 
and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act 
as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until 
the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

7. The President shall, at stated Times, receive for 
his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be In- 
creased nor diminished during the Period for which he 
shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within 
that Period, any other Emolument from the United 
States, or any of them. 

8. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office he 



318 THE NEW WORLD 

shall take the following Oath or Affirmation : — "I do sol- 
emnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute 
the Office of President of the United States, and will, 
to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend 
the Constitution of the United States." 

(Section 2.) 1. The President shall be Commander 
in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, 
and of the Militia of the several States, when called into 
the actual Service of the United States ; he may require 
the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each 
of the Executive Departments, upon any Subject relat- 
ing to the duties of their respective Offices, and he shall 
have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Of- 
fences against the United States, except in Cases of 
Impeachment. 

2. He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and 
Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two- 
thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nom- 
inate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the 
Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other Public Minis- 
ters, and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all 
other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments 
are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall 
be established by Law; but the Congress may by Law 
vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they 
think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of 
Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 

3. The President shall have Power to fill up all Va- 
cancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, 



APPENDICES 319 

by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End 
of the next Session. 

(Section 3.) 1. He shall from time to time give to 
the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and 
recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extra- 
1 ordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of 
them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with 
Respect to the time of Adjournment, he may adjourn 
them to such Time as he shall think proper ; he shall re- 
ceive Ambassadors and other Public Ministers; he shall 
take care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall 
commission all the Officers of the United States. 

(Section 4.) I. The President, Vice President, and 
all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed 
from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, 
Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Mis- 
demeanors. 

ARTICLE III.— (Section 1.) 1. The judicial Power 
of the United States shall be vested in one supreme 
Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may, 
from time to time, ordain and establish. The Judges, 
both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their 
Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated 
Times, receive for their Services a Compensation, which 
shall not be diminished during their Continuance in 
Office. 

(Section 2.) 1. The Judicial Power shall extend to 
all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Consti- 
tution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties 



320 THE NEW WORLD 

made, or which shall be made, tinder their Authority; — ■ 
to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Minis- 
ters and Consuls ; — to all Cases of admirality and mari- 
time Jurisdiction; to Controversies to which the United 
States shall be a Party; — to Controversies between two 
or more States; — between a State and Citizens of an- 
other State; — between Citizens of different States; — be- 
tween Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under 
Grants of different States, and between a State, or the 
Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens, or Sub- 
jects. 

2. In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public 
Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall 
be a Party, the supreme Court shall have original Juris- 
diction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the 
supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both 
as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under 
such regulations as the Congress shall make. 

3. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Im- 
peachment, shall be by Jury ; and such Trial shall be held 
in the State where the said Crimes shall have been com- 
mitted; but when not committed within any State, the 
Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress 
may by Law have directed. 

(Section 3.) 1. Treason against the United States, 
shall consist only in levying War against them, or in ad- 
hering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. 
No person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the 
Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or 
on Confession in open Court. 



APPENDICES 321 

2. The Congress shall have Power to declare the 
Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason 
shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except 
during the Life of the Person attained. 

ARTICLE IV.— (Section I.) 1. Full Faith and 
Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, 
Records, and Judicial Proceedings of every other State. 
And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the 
manner in which such Acts, Records, and Proceedings 
shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. 

(Section 2.) I. The Citizens of each State shall be 
entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in 
the several States. 

2. A Person charged in any State with Treason, Fel- 
ony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be 
found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive 
Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered 
up to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the 
Crime. 

3. No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, 
under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be 
discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be 
delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Ser- 
vice or Labour may be due. 

(Section 3.) I. New States may be admitted by the 
Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be 
formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other 
State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two 



322 THE NEW WORLD 

or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent 
of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of 
the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and 
make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the 
Territory or other Property belonging to the United 
States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so con- 
strued as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, 
or of any particular State. 

(Section 4.) 1. The United States shall guarantee 
to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Gov- 
ernment, and shall protect each of them against Inva- 
sion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the 
Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) 
against domestic Violence. 

ARTICLE V. 1. The Congress, whenever two- 
thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall pro- 
pose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Appli- 
cation of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several 
States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amend- 
ments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents 
and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified 
by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States 
or by Conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one 
or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by 
the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may 
be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred 
and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth 
. Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article ; and 



APPENDICES 323 

that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of 
its equal Suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 1. All Debts contracted and Engage- 
ments entered into, before the Adoption of this Consti- 
tution, shall be as valid against the United States under 
this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the Laws of the United 
States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and 
all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
Law of the Land ; and the Judges in every State shall be 
bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of 
any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The Senators and Representatives before men- 
tioned, and the Members of the several State Legisla- 
tures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of 
the United States and of the several States, shall be 
bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitu- 
tion; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a 
Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the 
United States. 

ARTICLE VII. 1. The Ratification of the Conven- 
tions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establish- 
ment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying 
the same. 

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the 
States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the 
Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
Eighty-seven and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the Twelfth. In Witness whereof 



3 2 4 



THE NEW WORLD 



We have hereunto subscribed our Names, Geo. WASH- 
INGTON — Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia. 

Attest : WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 



New Hampshire: 

John Langdon 

Nicholas Gilman 
Massachusetts: 

Nathaniel Gorham 

Rufus King 
Connecticut: 

Wm. Saml. Johnson 

Roger Sherman 
New York: 

Alexander Hamilton 
New Jersey: 

Wil. Livingston 

David Brearley 

Wm. Paterson 

Jona. Dayton 
Pennsylvania: 

B. Franklin 

Thomas Mifflin 

Robt. Morris 

Geo. Clymer 

Thos. Fitz Simons 
Jared Ingersoll 
James Wilson 
Gouv. Morris 



Delaware: 

Geo. Read 

Gunning Bedford Jun 

John Dickinson 

Richard Bassett 

Jaco. Broom 
Maryland: 

James McHenry 

Dan of St. Thos. Jenifer 

Danl. Carroll 
Virginia: 

John Blair 

James Madison Jr. 
North Carolina: 

Wm. Blount 

Richd. Dobbs Spaight 

Hu. Williamson 
South Carolina: 

J. Rutledge 

Charles Pinckney 

Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney 

Pierce Butler. 
Georgia: 

William Few 

Abr. Baldwin 



APPENDICES 325 

[Articles in Addition to and Amendment of the Con- 
stitution of the United States of America, Proposed by 
Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of the several 
States, Pursuant to the Fifth Article of the Constitu- 
tion.'] 

ARTICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting 
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex- 
ercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of 
the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- 
ble, and to petition the Government for a redress of 
grievances. 

ARTICLE II. A well regulated Militia, being neces- 
sary to the security of a free State, the right of the 
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III. No Soldier shall, in time of peace, 
be quartered in any house, without the consent of the 
Owner, nor, in time of war, but in a manner to be 
prescribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure 1 
in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be vio- 
lated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable 
cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly 
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or 
things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V. No person shall be held to answer 
for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a 
presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Mili- 
tia, when in actual service in time of War or public 



326 THE NEW WORLD 

danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same 
offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor 
shall be compelled in any Criminal Case to be a witness 
against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
erty, without due process of law ; nor shall private prop- 
erty be taken for public use, without just compensation. 

ARTICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the ac- 
cused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, 
by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein 
the crime shall have been committed, which district shall 
have been previously ascertained by law, and to be in- 
formed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be 
confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have com- 
pulsory process for obtaining Witnesses in his favor, 
and to have the assistance of Counsel for his defence. 

ARTICLE VII. In suits at common law, where the 
value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the 
right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
Court of the United States, than according to the rules 
of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, 
nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual pun- 
ishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, 
of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or dis- 
parage others retained by the people. 

ARTICLE X. The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 



APPENDICES 327 

States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
people. 

ARTICLE XI. The Judicial power of the United 
States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in 
law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of 
the United States by Citizens of another State, or by 
Citizens or subjects of any Foreign State. 

ARTICLE XII.— (Section 1.) The Electors shall 
meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for 
President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, 
shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with them- 
selves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted 
for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted 
for as Vice President; and they shall make distinct lists 
of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons 
voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes 
for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United 
States, directed to the President of the Senate; — the 
President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the cer- 
tificates and the votes shall then be counted; — The per- 
son having the greatest number of votes for President, 
shall be the President, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the 
highest number not exceeding three on the list of those 
voted for as President, the House of Representa- 
tives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the Presi- 
dent. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be 



328 THE NEW WORLD 

taken by states, the representation from each state hav- 
ing one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of 
a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and 
a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. 
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
President whenever the right of choice shall devolve 
upon them, before the fourth day of March next follow- 
ing, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in 
the case of the death or other constitutional disability of 
the President. The person having the greatest number 
of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-Presi- 
dent, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of Electors appointed, and if no person 
have a majority, then from the two highest num- 
bers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-Presi- 
dent; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two- 
thirds of the whole number of Senators, a majority of 
the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no 
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of Presi- 
dent shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the 
United States. 

ARTICLE XIII.— (Section 7.) Neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall 
exist within the United States, or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction. 

(Section 2.) Congress shall have power to enforce 
this article by appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV.— (Section 1.) All persons born or 
naturalized in the United States, and subject to the juris- 



APPENDICES 329 

diction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of 
the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or 
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or 
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall 
any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law; nor deny to any person 
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

(Section 2.) Representatives shall be apportioned 
among the several States according to their respective 
numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each 
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right 
to vote at any election for the choice of electors for 
President and Vice-President of the United States, Rep- 

l resentatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial of- 
ficers of a State, or the members of the Legislature fhere- 

1 of, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, 
being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United 
States, or in any way abridged, except for participation 
in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation 
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the 
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole 
number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such 
State. 

(Section 3.) No person shall be a Senator or Repre- 
sentative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- 
President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 
the United States, or under any State, who, having pre- 

| viously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an 
officer of the United States, or as a member of any State 
legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 



330 THE NEW WORLD 

State, to support the Constitution of the United States, 
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against 
the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. 
But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each 
House, remove such disability. 

(Section 4.) The validity of the public debt of the 
United States, authorized by law, including debts in- 
curred for payment of pensions and bounties for services 
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be 
questioned. But neither the United States nor any State 
shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in 
aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, 
or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; 
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held 
illegal and void. 

(Section 5.) The Congress shall have power to en- 
force, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this 
article. 

ARTICLE XV.— (Section I.) The right of citizens 
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

(Section 2.) The Congress shall have power to en- 
force this article by appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XVI. The Congress shall have power to 
lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source 
derived, without apportionment among the several States 
and without regard to any census or enumeration. 

ARTICLE XVII.— (Section 1.) The Senate of the 
United States shall be composed of two senators front 



APPENDICES 331 

each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years ; 
and each senator shall have one vote. The electors in 
each state shall have the qualifications requisite for elec- 
tors of the most numerous branch of the State Legis- 
lature. 

(Section 2.) When vacancies happen in the represen- 
tation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority 
of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such va- 
cancies : Provided, That the legislature of any state may 
empower the executive thereof to make temporary ap- 
pointments until the people fill the vacancies by election 
as the legislature may direct. 

(Section 3.) This amendment shall not be so con- 
strued as to affect the election or term of any senator 
chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.. 

ARTICLE XVIIL— (Section 1.) After one year 
from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale 
or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the im- 
portation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from 
the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdic- 
tion thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. 

(Section 2.) The Congress and the several states 
shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

(Section 3.) This article shall be inoperative unless 
it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Consti- 
tution by the legislatures of the several states as pro- 
vided in the Constitution within seven years from the 
date of the submission hereof to the states by the Con- 
gress. 






no. ...:.8.396 

United States txi America 




DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

to whom ihesz presents slxixll tomt, (Cutting,: 

fcerttfg That -^fL ^~- ■ .y* ^ZE^£^> /L*JL 



*i^t£:JSs^z- 



\jLdc£^/ 






t^^^^L. 



*%n testimony ujlietreof 

Secretary of Stale, hate hereunto caused theoeal of the Depart- 
ment of State to be affixed and my name subscribed by the Chief 
Clerk of (he said Department, at the City of Washington, 
this *£>~«L. day of^^h\.^^^SJL— /9X>2<? 



jgiL. day o/C^Sp 



m 



Secrdary of Slate. 



ChUj CH 



332 



APPENDIX V 
PLATFORM OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL 

The contradictions of the capitalistic world system, 
which were concealed in its interior showed themselves 
with enormous force in one gigantic explosion — in the 
great imperialistic World War. 

Capitalism attempted to overcome its own anarchy by 
organizing production. In the place of numerous com- 
peting enterprises were organized powerful unions of 
capitalists (syndicates, artels, and trusts). Bank capital 
united with industrial capital; all economic life came 
under the authority of this financial capitalistic olig- 
archy, which on the basis of this power and through its 
own organization attained an all-inclusive domination. 
In the place of free competition developed monopoly. 
The individual capitalist became a capitalist-member of 
a capitalistic union. Senseless anarchy came to be re- 
placed by organization. 

But in the same measure as the anarchy of the cap- 
italistic method of production came to be replaced by 
capitalistic organization in individual countries, contra- 
dictions became sharper and sharper, as well as the 
struggle of competition, the anarchy of world economics. 

1 Izvestia, March 6, 1919. 

333 



334 THE NEW WORLD 

The struggle between the greatest organized predatory 
states inevitably led to the monstrous imperialistic World 
War. The appetite for profits drove world capital to 
struggle for new markets, for new spheres for its capital, 
for new sources of raw material and for the cheap labor 
of colonial slaves. The imperialistic states which divide 
the whole world among themselves, which converted 
many millions of African, Asian, Australian, and Amer- 
ican proletarians and peasants into mere working cattle, 
were obliged sooner or later to reveal, in this gigantic 
conflict, the actual anarchical character of capital. Thus 
came the greatest of crimes — the predatory World War. 

Capitalism tried to overcome its own social structure 
so full of contradictions. Bourgeois society is a class 
society. But capital of the great "civilized" countries 
wished to suppress social contradictions. At the expense 
of colonial peoples they had robbed, capital bribed 
its own hired slaves and tried to create a community of 
interests between the exploiters and the exploited, the 
interests that were directed against the oppressed colo- 
nies, the colonial peoples, yellow, black, and red. It en- 
chained the European and American working class to 
the imperialistic "fatherland." 

But this same method of constant bribing, by which 
one tries to develop the patriotism of the working class 
and its spiritual enslavement, as a result of the war was 
converted into its very opposite. Physical exhaustion, 
the complete enslavement of the proletariat-monstrous 
oppression, impoverishment and degradation, world- 
hunger — these were the last prices that had to be paid 



APPENDICES 335 

for civil peace. It (civil peace) was broken. The im- 
perialistic war was changed to civil war. 

The new epoch has been born. It is the epoch of the 
dissolution of capitalism, of its internal disintegration. 
It is the epoch of the communist revolution of the pro- 
letariat. 

The imperialist system is collapsing. Ferment in the 
colonies, ferment among the small nationalities, till now 
not independent, the uprising of the proletariat, victo- 
rious proletarian revolution in several countries, the dis- 
integration of imperialistic armies, the complete inability 
of the ruling class to direct further the destiny of the 
people — this is the picture of the present situation in 
the whole world. 

Humanity, whose culture has been subject to disin- 
tegration, is now threatened by the danger of complete 
destruction. There is only one force capable of saving 
it and this force is the proletariat. There is no longer 
left the old capitalist "order," and it can no longer exist. 
The final result of the existence of the capitalistic sys- 
tem of production is chaos, and this chaos can be over- 
come only by that large producing class — the working 
class. The latter must establish actual order — a com- 
munistic order. It must destroy the rule of capital, make 
wars impossible, wipe out frontiers between states, re- 
make the whole world into a community which is work- 
ing for itself, realize freedom and the brotherhood of 
peoples. 

In the meanwhile, world capital is preparing for the 
last battle. Under the cover of the "League of Nations" 



336 THE NEW WORLD 

and of pacifistic chattering it is putting forth its last 
efforts to cement together the parts of the capitalistic 
system that are falling apart and it will use all its force 
against proletarian revolution that is beginning to flame 
up in such a way that it cannot be restrained. 

To this new, grandiose conspiracy of the imperialistic 
classes the proletariat must answer by acquiring political 
power, by directing this power against its own enemy 
and using it as a lever for the economic reorganization of 
society. The final victory of the world proletariat will 
mean the beginning of the real history of liberated man- 
kind. 

CONQUEST OF POLITICAL POWER 

The conquest of political power by the proletariat 
means the destruction of the political power of the bour- 
geoisie. The most powerful weapon of authority in the 
hands of the bourgeoisie is the bourgeois apparatus of 
state, with its capitalistic army which is under the com- 
mand of bourgeoisie — junker officers, with its police and 
secret police, its prison- wardens and judges, its preach- 
ers, civil officials and such. The conquest of political 
power cannot be limited simply to a change in the per- 
sonnel of the government departments, but must mean 
the destruction of this parasitic state apparatus, and the 
concentration in one's hand of a real force, the disarm- 
ing of the bourgeoisie, of counter-revolutionary officers 
and of the white-guard and the arming of the proletariat, 
of the revolutionary soldiers and of the red-guards of 



APPENDICES 337 

workmen; the removal of all bourgeois judges and the 
organization of a proletarian court of law; the destruc- 
tion of the domination of reactionary officials and the 
establishment of new proletarian organs of government. 
The victory of the proletariat is guaranteed by the dis- 
organizing of hostile authority, and it must mean the 
destruction of the bourgeoisie, and the building up of the 
proletarian, apparatus of state. Only after the proleta- 
riat shall have triumphed by definitely breaking the oppo- 
sition of the bourgeoisie will the proletariat be able in a 
useful manner to force its former opponents to serve 
it, gradually bringing them, under its own control, to the 
work of communistic construction. 

DEMOCRACY AND LEADERSHIP 

Just as every state so the proletarian state represents 
an apparatus of compulsion, and this apparatus of com- 
pulsion is now directed against the enemy of the work- 
ing class. Its significance consists in this, that it is to 
break and make impossible the resistance of the exploit- 
ers, who will use in this struggle all means to suppress 
the revolution in streams of blood. On the other hand, 
the dictatorship of the proletariat which will place this 
class officially in a position of the dominant class in so- 
ciety, represents a transition state. In measure as the 
opposition of the bourgeoisie is broken, the latter will 
be expropriated and gradually converted into a working 
class of society, and the dictatorship will disappear, and 
the state and the dividing of society into classes will 
die out. 



338 THE NEW WORLD 

So-called democracy, that is, bourgeois democracy, is 
nothing other than a concealed dictatorship of the bour- 
geoisie. The famous general "will of the people" is the 
same kind of fiction as is the united people. In fact 
there exist classes with opposed tendencies exclusive of 
one another. And as the bourgeoisie is an insignificant 
minority, so it uses the fiction, this fictitious popular will, 
in order, under the cover of this broad phrase, to 
strengthen its domination over the working class and 
impose on the latter the will of its own class. On the 
other hand, the proletariat, which represents the over- 
whelming majority of the population, will quite openly 
use the class strength of its mass organizations, of its 
Soviets, in order to abolish the privileges of the bour- 
geoisie, and guarantee the passing to a non-class com- 
munistic society. 

The essence of bourgeois democracy consists in a 
purely declaratory formal recognition of rights and liber- 
ties that are not accessible for the proletariat and the 
half-proletarian elements because the latter have not the 
material means, while the bourgeoisie has the full pos- 
sibility to use its material means, its press, and its or- 
ganizations for lies and to deceive the people. On the 
other hand, the essence of the Soviet system, of this new 
type of governmental authority, consists in this that 
under this system the proletariat is given the possibility 
in fact to secure for itself its rights and liberty. The 
Soviet authority will give to the people the best palaces, 
houses, printing shops, stores of paper, etc., for its press, 



APPENDICES 339 

for its meetings, and its clubs. Only then will the prole- 
tarian democracy be really possible. 

Bourgeois democracy with its parliamentary system 
allows to the masses participation in the government of 
the state only in words. In actual fact the masses and 
their organizations are completely shut off from actual 
authority and the actual government of the country. 
Under the system of Soviets mass organizations govern, 
and, through the latter, the masses themselves, since the 
Soviets bring a constantly increasing number of work- 
men into the administration of the state, and only thus 
is the entire working people gradually drawn into the 
actual work of governing the state. The Soviet system 
thus rests on mass organization of the proletariat in the 
form of these Soviets of revolutionary trade unions, co- 
operative societies, etc. 

Bourgeois democracy and the parliamentary system, 
as a result of the separation of executive and legislative 
authority and the absence of the right to recall represen- 
tatives, make broader the gulf between the masses and 
the state. On the other hand, the Soviet system, with its 
right of recall, by uniting the executive and legislative 
powers, and as a result of the ability of the Soviet to be 
functioning collegiate institutions, establishes a close 
bond between the masses and the organs of government. 
This bond is more easily maintained because under the 
system of Soviets, elections take place not according to 
artificially created districts but correspond with group- 
ings resulting from the productive process. 

Thus the Soviet system guarantees the possibility of 



34Q THE NEW WORLD 

an actual proletarian democracy, a democracy for the 
proletariat, and within the proletariat, and a democracy 
directed against the bourgeoisie. Under this system the 
industrial proletariat is guaranteed a privileged position 
as the leading, better organized and politically more ma- 
tured class, under the hegemony of which the half-pro- 
letarian elements and the peasant-poor elements of the 
village will be able gradually to raise themselves. These 
temporary privileges of the industrial proletariat must be 
used in order to wrest the non-propertied petty bourgeois 
masses of the village from under the influence of the 
village peasant bourgeoisie, to organize them and bring 
them as collaborators into the work of communistic con- 
struction. 

THE EXPROPRIATION OF THE BOURGEOISIE 
AND THE SOCIALIZATION OF PRODUCTION 

The disintegration of the capitalistic system and of 
capitalistic labor discipline makes it impossible under the 
present inter-class relations to reestablish production on 
the former basis. The struggle of workmen for increase 
of wages, even when successful, does not lead to the 
expected raising of the standard of living because the 
increase of prices on all productions of consumption in- 
evitably neutralizes the success. The energetic struggle 
of the workmen for increase of wages in those countries 
where the situation is clearly hopeless, because of the 
elemental bitterness and the tendency to convert the 
strike into a world strike, makes impossible the further 



APPENDICES 341 

development of capitalistic production. Improvement of 
conditions of workmen can be attained only when the 
bourgeoisie (has been expropriated — this added by trans- 
lator as there is evidently an omission here) and the pro- 
letariat itself takes possession of production. In order 
to raise the productive power of economic life, in order 
to break as quickly as possible the resistance of the bour- 
geoisie which is prolonging the agony of the old form of 
society and thus creating the danger of the complete dis- 
ruption of economic life, the proletarian dictatorship 
must carry out the expropriation of the large bourgeoisie 
and nobility, and make the means of production and 
transportation the public property of the proletarian 
state. 

Communism is being born now in the ruins of the cap- 
italistic order; history will not give mankind any other 
issue from the situation. The opportunists who put for- 
ward the Utopian demands for the regeneration of the 
capitalistic system of economy in order to postpone so^ 
cialization, are simply dragging out the solution of the 
crisis and thus creating the direct menace of complete 
ruin while the communistic revolution is the best and 
actually possible means by which the actual productive 
force in society — the proletariat — and with it society 
itself, may save themselves. 

Proletarian dictatorship does not contemplate any kind 
of dividing up of the means of production and transpor- 
tation. Quite the contrary, its task is to bring about a 
greater centralization of productive forces and the sub- 
jection of all production to a unified plan. 



342 THE NEW WORLD 

As the first steps on the road to the socialization of 
the entire economic life the following are necessary : The 
socialization of the apparatus of the largest banks, which 
now control industry ; the gaining possession of all econ- 
omic state-capitalistic organs by transferring them to the 
proletarian state governmental authority; the gaining 
possession of all commercial enterprises ; the socialization 
of syndicalized and "trusted" branches of industry and 
also of those branches of industry in which the degree of 
concentration and centralization of capital are such as to 
make socialization technically possible; the socialization 
of agricultural farms and their conversion into publicly 
managed agricultural enterprises. 

As for the small enterprises the proletariat must 
gradually unite them taking into consideration their sizes. 

In this connection one must emphasize particularly 
that the small holders of private property may not be 
expropriated and the small proprietor who did not exploit 
the labors of others may not be subjected to any violent 
measures. This group will be drawn into the sphere of 
socialist organization gradually, by example and by prac- 
tical experience, which will show the advantages of the 
new order, which in turn will free the small farmer and 
the small bourgeoisie from the economic yoke of the rich 
farmer and nobility and from the weight of taxes (par- 
ticularly as the result of the repudiation of state loans), 
etc. 

The task of the proletarian dictatorship in the fields of 
economics may be fulfilled only to the extent to which 
the proletariat will be able to create centralized organs 



APPENDICES 343 

for the administration of industry and to realize work- 
men's administration. Furthermore, the proletariat will 
be obliged to use those of its mass organizations which 
are most closely associated with the .process of pro- 
duction. 

In the field of distribution, the proletarian dictatorship 
must bring about the proper distribution of products as 
a substitute for trading; one must call attention to those 
measures which will have to be adopted to this end : The 
socialization of the largest trading enterprises ; the trans- 
fer into the hands of the proletariat of all bourgeois- 
public, and also municipal, organs of distribution ; control 
over the largest cooperative combinations, the organiza- 
tion of which will still have enormous economic signi- 
ficance through the period of transition; the gradual 
centralization of all these organs and their gradual con- 
version into a single whole for the national distribution 
of products. 

Both in the field of production and also in that of dis- 
tribution all workers of qualified economic experience 
and specialization must be made use of, after their oppo- 
sition in the field of politics will have been broken, so 
that they will be in a position to serve the new system 
of production, instead of capital. 

The proletariat has no intention to oppress the latter 
(technical experts and specialists) ; quite the contrary, 
the proletariat will be the first to give to them the possi- 
bility of developing the most energetic creative activity. 
The proletarian dictatorship will replace the division into 
physical and intellectual labor, which is characteristic of 



344 THE NEW WORLD 

capitalism, by a uniting of the two and thus it will bring 
together labor and science. 

Together with the expropriation of factories, mines, 
landed estate, etc., the proletariat must also put an end 
to the exploitation of the population by capitalistic house- 
owners, and transfer the larger houses into the hands of 
local workmen's Soviets, and move the workmen into the 
apartments of the bourgeoisie, etc. In the course of this 
enormous change, the Soviet authority must, on the one 
hand, create an enormous apparatus of administration, 
becoming more and more centralized, and, on the other 
hand, it must bring larger groups of the working people 
to the immediate task of government. 

THE ROAD TO VICTORY 

The revolutionary epoch demands of the proletariat 
the application of such methods of struggle as will con- 
centrate all its energies, first of all methods of mass 
struggle with its logical conclusions — direct conflict in. 
open battle with the bourgeoisie, governmental machinery. 
To this end must be subordinated all other means, as,, 
for example, the revolutionary making use of bourgeois 
parliamentary institutions. 

A necessary preliminary condition for such a victo- 
rious struggle is a rupture not only with the out-and-out 
lackeys of capital and with the executioners of the com- 
munist revolution, such as the right Social Democrats, 
but also a breaking away from the Center (followers of 
Kautsky) which abandons the proletariat at a critical, 
moment and flirts with its open enemies. 



APPENDICES 345 

On the other hand, one must form an alliance with the 
elements of the revolutionary workmen's movement, 
which, in spite of the fact that formerly they did not 
belong to the Socialist Party, have now become, in gen- 
eral and on the whole, supporters of the proletarian dicta- 
torship in the form of Soviets, as for example certain 
elements of syndicalism. 

The growth of the revolutionary movement in all coun- 
tries, the danger that this revolution will be suppressed 
by a union of capitalistic states, attempts of traitor- 
socialist parties to unite (the forming of a yellow inter- 
national in Berne), in order lackey-like to serve Wilson's 
league, and finally the absolute necessity of coordinating 
the proletarian movement — all this leads eventually to 
the establishment of a genuinely revolutionary and gen- 
uinely proletarian Communist International. 

The International that will be able to subordinate so- 
called national interests to the interest of the world revo- 
lution, will, by this very reason, realize mutual assistance 
between proletariats of various countries, for without 
economic and other forms of mutual support the prole- 
tariat will not be able to establish the new society. On 
the other hand, in opposition to the yellow socialist Inter- 
national, the International of the communist proletariat 
will support the exploited peoples of colonies in their 
struggle against imperialism in order to assist the final 
collapse of the system of world imperialism. 

The criminals of capitalism affirmed at the beginning 
of the World War that all of them were simply defend- 
ing their own countries. But soon German imperialism 



346 THE NEW WORLD 

revealed its beast-like nature by a series of bloody acts 
in Russia, the Ukraine and Finland. Now, in their 
turn, the powers of the Entente are revealing themselves 
in the eyes even of the most retrograde groups of the 
population, for they have turned out to be the world- 
robbers and the murderers of the proletariat. In agree- 
ment with the German bourgeoisie and with socialist- 
patriots, with hypocritical phrases about peace on their 
lips, they are trying to crush to the ground, with the help 
of tanks and uneducated barbarian colonial troops, the 
revolution of the European proletariat. The white terror 
of the bourgeois cannibals is cruel beyond description. 
The sacrifices of the working class cannot be numbered; 
it has lost its best fighters, Liebknecht and Luxemburg. 

The proletariat must defend itself at any cost. The 
Communist International calls on the entire proletariat 
of the world to take part in this last struggle. Arms 
against arms! Force against force! 

Down with the imperialistic conspiracy of capital! 
Long live the international republic of proletarian 
Soviets. 



APPENDIX VI 
MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL 1 

Seventy-two years ago the Communist Party pro- 
claimed its program to the world in the form of the 
Manifesto written by the greatest teachers of the prole- 
tarian revolution, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. 
Even at that early time when Communism had scarcely 
come into the arena of conflict, it was hounded by the 
lies, hatred, and calumny of the possessing classes, who 
rightly suspected in it their mortal enemy. During these 
seven decades Communism has traveled a hard road of 
ascent followed by periods of sharp decline; successes 
but also severe defeats. In spite of all, the development 
at bottom went the way forecast by the Manifesto of the 
Communist Party. The epoch of the last decisive strug- 
gle came later than the apostles of the social revolution 
expected and wished. But it has come. 

We Communists, representatives of the revolutionary 
proletariat of the different countries of Europe, America, 
and Asia, assembled in Soviet Moscow, feel and consider 
ourselves followers and fulfillers of the cause, the pro- 
gram of which was proclaimed seventy-two years ago. 
It is our task now to sum up the practical revolutionary 
experience of the working class, to cleanse the movement 

1 Severnya Kotnmuna, March 8, 1919. 

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APPENDICES 349 

of its treacherous admixtures of opportunism and social- 
ist patriotism and to unite the efforts of all revolutionary 
parties of the world proletariat and thus facilitate and 
hasten the victory of the communist revolution in the 
whole world. Now when Europe is covered with ruins 
and piles of smoking wreckage, the greatest instigators 
are occupied with searchers for those guilty of the war. 
In their trail follow their servants : professors, members 
of parliaments, journalists, socialists-patriots and the 
other political souteneurs of the bourgeoisie. 

For a long span of years Socialism predicted the in- 
evitableness of the imperialistic war; it perceived the es- 
sential cause of this war in the insatiable greed of the 
possessing classes in both camps of capitalist nations. 
Two years before the outbreak of the war the responsible 
socialist leaders of all countries, at the Basle Congress, 
exposed imperialism as the instigator of the coming war 
and menaced the bourgeoisie with the threat to bring 
down on its head a socialist revolution, as the retaliation 
of the proletariat for the crimes of militarism. Now 
after the experience of five years, after history has ex- 
posed the predatory appetities of Germany and the no 
less criminal acts of the Allies, the State Socialists of the 
countries of the Entente together with their Governments 
continue to try to unmask as the instigator of the war the 
overthrown German Kaiser. Further, the German So- 
cialist-patriots who in August, 1914, proclaimed the dip- 
lomatic white book of the Hohenzollern as the holiest 
gospel of the people, now, following the lead of the 
socialists of the Entente, with vulgar servility accuse the 



350 THE NEW WORLD 

overthrown Germany Monarchy, which they served so 
slavishly, as the main instigator of the war. In that way 
they hope to force people to forget their own role and 
at the same time gain the good will of the victors. But 
alongside the role of the overthrown dynasties of the 
Romanoffs, Hohenzollerns, and Hapsburgs, the capital- 
istic cliques of these countries and the role of the govern- 
ing classes of France, England, Italy, and the United 
States, stand revealed in all their immeasurable criminal- 
ities in the light of the unfolding events and of diplo- 
matic disclosures. 

English diplomacy to the very outbreak of the war did 
not remove its secret visor. The Government of the 
"City" was afraid that if it categorically declared its 
participation in the war on the side of the Entente, the 
government of Berlin would recede and there would not 
be war. In London they wanted the war. Therefore 
they behaved in such a manner that in Berlin and Vienna 
they counted on the neutrality of England, while in Paris 
and St. Petersburg they evidently counted on her com- 
ing in. 

The War which was prepared by the course of devel- 
opment during decades was unleashed with the direct and 
conscious provocation of Great Britain. The Govern- 
ment of the latter counted on giving support to Russia 
and France only to such a point as to exhaust Germany 
also — its mortal enemy — while exhausting them (Russia 
and France). But the strength of the German military 
machine was too threatening and required the actual and 
not an apparent intervention of England in the war. The 



APPENDICES 351 

role of the cynical broker which Great Britain had al- 
ways assumed by an old tradition, fell to the lot of the 
United States. The Government of Wilson was able 
more easily to reconcile itself to the English blockade, 
which cut off speculation by the American Stock Ex- 
change in European blood, since the countries of the 
Entente rewarded the American bourgeoisie by gener- 
ous profits for the violation of "international law." 

But the enormous military superiority of Germany im- 
pelled even the Government of Washington to depart 
from its position of fictitious neutrality. The United 
States assumed with respect to Europe as a whole that 
very role which England had played in past wars, and 
tried to play in this last war, with respect to the continent 
— that of weakening one camp with the assistance of the 
other, and of intervening in military operations only in 
order to secure for self all the advantages of the situa- 
tion. Wilson's stake was not large, as is the method of 
American lotteries, but it was the last stake and thus 
secured to him the prize. 

The contradictions of the capitalist system became clear 
to mankind in the result of the war, in the form of actual 
suffering, of hunger, cold, epidemic diseases and moral 
collapse. Thus the academic discussion within the ranks 
of socialism on the question of the theory of impoverish- 
ment and the gradual passing from capitalism to social- 
ism, is now being finally decided. For decades statisti- 
cians and scholars of the theory of the reconciliation of 
these contradictions have tried to collect from all the 
corners of the world actual and fictitious facts to prove 



352 THE NEW WORLD 

the increased well-being of separate groups and catego- 
ries of the working class. The theory of the impoverish- 
ment of the masses was considered to have been buried 
under the contemptuous voice of the eunuchs of the 
bourgeois pulpit and the mandarins of the socialistic op- 
portunism. At the present moment this impoverishment, 
which is now not only social but psychological and bio- 
logical, lies before our eyes in all its terrible actuality. 
The catastrophe of the imperialistic war has swept aside 
completely all the conquests of the trade unions and of 
parliamentary struggle, while this struggle has outgrown 
in a similar manner the internal tendencies of capitalism, 
and at the same time all tr^e economic deals and parlia- 
mentary compromises, which have been buried in blood 
and filth. 

Financial capital which threw mankind into the whirl- 
pool of war has itself suffered catastrophic changes dur- 
ing the course of this war. The dependence of money 
tokens on the material foundations of production has 
been completely destroyed. More and more losing their 
significance, the means and regulators of capitalistic ex- 
change of goods, and paper money, have become merely 
the weapon of requisitions, seizure and, in general, of 
military-economic oppression. The deterioration of paper 
now reflects the general mortal crisis of the capitalistic 
system of exchange of commodities. For free competi- 
tion as the regulator of production and distribution was 
pushed to one side in the main fields of industry by the 
system of trusts and monopolies already during the de- 
cades preceding the war, so that by the course of the 



APPENDICES 353 

war the regulating and directing role has been wrested 
from the hands of economic combinations, and has been 
turned over directly to the military — state authorities. 

The distribution of raw materials, the utilization of 
petroleum of Baku and Roumanian fields, of the coal of 
Donetz, of Ukrainian grain, the fate of the German ship- 
ping and automobile, the guaranteeing to starving Europe 
of grain and meat — all these fundamental questions of 
the economic life of the world are being regulated not by 
free competition and not by combinations of national 
and international trusts, but by the direct application of 
military force in the interest of its further self-preserva- 
tion. 

If the complete subjection of state authority to finan- 
cial capital brought mankind to the capitalistic shambles, 
so, thanks to this conflict, financial capital has completely 
militarized not only the state but also itself, and is now 
no longer able to fulfill its fundamental economic func- 
tions other than by means of iron and blood. 

The opportunists who before the war appealed to the 
workmen to be moderate in the name of a gradual tran- 
sition to socialism, who during the war demanded class 
peace in the name of unity for the cause of national de- 
fense — are once more demanding of the proletariat self- 
abnegation, this time in order to overcome the terrible 
consequences of the war. If this preaching would be 
accepted by the working masses, then imperialistic devel- 
opment would be reestablished on the bones of several 
generations, in new and even more terrible forms, with 



354 THE NEW WORLD 

the new perspective of an inevitable world war. Fortu-jh f 
nately for mankind this is impossible. tc 

The absorption by the state of economic life, against 
which capitalistic liberalism protested with such force; ii 
has now become an accomplished fact. There can be no H 
return, either to free competition or to the rule of trusts, t 
syndicates, and other economic monsters. The question i 
now is who will be the mainstay of production that < 
has come under the control of the state: An imperialistic: 
state or a state of the victorious proletariat. In other 
words, will all toiling mankind become the serfs of a vie- • 
torious world-clique which under the name of "League: 
of Nations," with the assistance of "international army," 1 
"international navy," will suppress some, feed others,, 
and everywhere impose chains on the proletariat, for the :• 
sole purpose of maintaining its own rule ? Or will the : 
working class of Europe and of the progressive coun-j 
tries of other parts of the world itself .take possession 
of the disrupted and disorganized economic situation, in 
order to guarantee its rehabilitation on socialist prin- 
ciples. 

The epoch of crisis through which the world is passing | 
can be brought to a close only by the measures adopted ! 
under the proletarian dictatorship, which does not look 
back to the past and does not take into account either J 
inherited privileges or rights of property, but does what 
is required to save the starving masses, mobilizes to this 
end all means and force, introduces universal labor ser- 
vice, establishes a regime of labor discipline, in order 
thus, during the course of several years, not only to 



APPENDICES 355 

heal the gaping wounds inflicted by the war but also 
to raise mankind to a new height until now unknown. 
The national state which gave powerful impulse to 
imperialistic development became too crowded for the 
development of the productive forces. The position of 
the small states became all the more difficult, distributed 
as they were among the large powers of Europe and all 
other parts of the world. These small states which came 
into existence at various times, as fragments of larger 
states, as small change used to pay for certain services, 
as strategic buffer states, have their dynasties, their rul- 
ing cliques and their imperialistic pretensions. Their 
illusory dependence until the war was supported by the 
same thing that supported the equilibrium of Europe: 
that is the constant antagonism between two imperialistic 
camps. The war destroyed this equilibrium. The enor- 
mous preponderance of Germany had forced the small 
states to seek safety in the magnanimity of German im- 
perialism. Later when Germany was beaten, the bour- 
geoisie of the small states, together with the patriotic- 
socialists, turned to welcome the triumphant victory of 
the Allies, and in the hypocritical fourteen points of the 
Wilsonian program began to seek guarantees for their 
future independent existence. At the same time a num- 
ber of small states grew out from the Austro-Hunga- 
rian Monarchy and new states were divided up from the 
Czar's Empire, and these new states scarcely born are 
already going at each other's throats over state frontiers. 
The Allied imperialists in the meanwhile suppress com- 
binations of small states, old and new, in order to get 



356 THE NEW WORLD 

possession of them, by taking advantage of their mutual 
hatred and general helplessness. By suppressing and 
using violence on small and weak peoples delivering them 
to famine and demoralization, the Allied imperialists, 
just as did the imperialists of the Central Empires only 
a short time ago, constantly speak of the right of the 
nations to self-determination, though this right has de- 
finitely been trampled under foot both in Europe and in 
other parts of the world. 

Small people can be guaranteed the possibility of their 
existence only by a proletarian revolution, which will 
liberate the productive forces of all countries from the 
restrictions of national States, will unite people, will 
guarantee their economic cooperation on the basis of a 
common economic plan and will make it possible for the 
weak and small people to enjoy complete freedom in the 
administration of the affairs of its own national culture 
without any detriment to the united and centralized Eu- 
ropean world economic system. 

The late war which was to a considerable extent a 
war because of colonies was at the same time a war with 
the aid of the colonies. An unprecedented proportion 
of the population was drawn into the European war. 
Why did the Indians, Negroes, and Arabs fight on the 
battle fields of Europe ? For their right to remain slaves 
of England and France. Never before was the picture of 
the disgrace of the imperialistic state colonies so clear 
and never was the problem of colonial slavery raised in 
such sharp relief. The result has been a series of open 
uprisings and revolutionary movements in all colonies. In 



APPENDICES 357 

Europe itself, Ireland, which did not take part in the 
bloody street battles, still remains an enslaved country. 
In Madagascar and in other places troops of a bourgeois 
republic have on several occasions aroused in the course 
of the war uprisings of colonial slaves. In India the 
revolutionary movement has not ceased for a single day 
and recently has led to unprecedented workmen's strikes 
in Asia, to which the Government of Great Britain has 
answered with armored motor cars. 

Thus the colonial question has risen to its full stature 
not only on the maps of the diplomatic congress in Paris, 
but also in the colonies themselves. The program of Wil- 
son has as its aim at the very best a change in the firm- 
name for colonial slavery. The liberation of the colonies 
is possible only if it is accompanied by a liberation of the 
working class of the metropolis. The workmen and 
peasants not only in Annam, Algeria, and Senegal, but 
also of Persia and Armenia, will be able to enjoy inde- 
pendent existence only when the workmen of England 
and France overthrow Lloyd George and Clemenceau 
and take state authority into their own hands. In the 
more developed colonies the struggle not only is in prog- 
ress at the present moment under the flag of liberation, 
but it is also taking on a more or less clearly expressed 
social character. If capitalistic Europe forcibly dragged 
the most retrograde into the whirlpool of capitalist rela- 
tions, then the Europe of Socialists will come to the 
assistance of the freed colonies with its technique, its 
organization, and its cultural influences, in order to 



358 THE NEW WORLD 

hasten their transition to an orderly organized socialistic 
economic system. 

Colonial slaves of Africa and Asia ! The hour of the 
proletarian dictatorship will strike also for you as the 
hour of your liberation. 

The whole bourgeois world accuses the Communist 
of destroying liberties and political democracy. This is 
not true. On coming into power the proletariat simply 
shows how absolutely impossible it is to apply the meth- 
ods of bourgeois democracy, and so creates the conditions 
and forms of a new and superior democracy of the 
worker. The whole course of capitalistic development, 
particularly in the last period of imperialism, under- 
mined political democracy, not only by dividing the camp 
into two irreconcilably hostile classes, but also by con- 
demning the numerically large petty-bourgeois and 
workmen-proletarian classes to economic benumbing, and 
also the disinherited lower ranks of the proletariat itself. 

The working class of all countries in its historic devel- 
opment has taken advantage of the regime of political 
democracy in order to organize against capital. The 
same thing will take place in those countries where the 
conditions for a working class revolution have not ma- 
tured. But the broad intermediary masses, not only in 
the villages but also in the cities, are held back by capital- 
ism, falling behind by whole epochs in respect to historic 
development. The peasants of Bavaria and Baden are 
still strongly attached to their village belfry. The small 
French wine-grower, who has been ruined by the large- 
scale capitalistic adulterations of wine, the small Amer- 






APPENDICES 359 

tcan farmer who has been robbed and deceived by the 
Danker — all of these people who have been shoved aside 
H)y capitalism, have been called into the administration of 
{he state under the regime of political democracy. But 
In reality in all other questions, that determine the fate 
of peoples, the financial oligarchy puts through its own 
siecisions behind the wall of parliamentary democracy. 
\This was true particularly in questions of the war, and 
i:his is what is taking place now in questions of peace. 

To demand of the proletariat that in this last struggle, 
itiot for life but to death, with capital, it should loyally 
observe the demands of political democracy, is the same 
as to demand of a man who is defending his life and 
j existence from highway robbers that he should observe 
[the scientific and well-guarded rules of the French sys- 
ttem of boxing, which rules have been made by his enemy 
and are not observed by the latter. 

When the principles of destruction govern, then the 
proletariat is obliged to create its own apparatus, which 
will serve first of all to protect the internal bonds of the 
working class, guarantee the possibility of its revolution- 
ary intervention in the further development of humanity. 
The old parties, the old organization of trade unions, 
have proved, in the persons of their directing leaders, 
incapable of deciding or even understanding the prob- 
lems which the new epoch has raised. The proletariat 
has created a new type of organization which stretches 
out wide over the whole working mass, independent of 
trade or of the level of political development attained. 
It is a flexible apparatus which can be constantly re- 



3 6o THE NEW WOFLD 

newed, developed, and which can bring within its sphere 
constantly new forces, and open its doors f or*the proleta- 
riat and for the toiling classes of city and village. This 
organization is the self-government of the working class 
and represents the most powerful conquest and weapon 
of the proletariat in our present epoch. 

In all countries where the toiling masses live a con- 
scious life, Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers' and Pea- 
sants' Deputies are being established and will be estab- 
lished. The most important task at the present moment 
of the conscious and honorable workmen of all countries 
is to strengthen the Soviets, to increase their authority 
and to imitate the governmental apparatus of Russia. 
By means of Soviets the working class is able to save 
itself from the disintegration which is developing in its 
midst as the result of the infernal anguish of war, 
hunger, violence produced by the propertied class and 
the treason of the high authorities. By means of Soviets 
the workmen class can more surely and easily come into 
power in all those countries where Soviets rally around 
themselves the majority of the toilers. By means of 
Soviets the working class will direct all branches of the 
economic and cultural life of the country, just as this is 
taking place at the present moment in Russia. 

The collapse of the imperialistic state, from the Czarist 
to the most democratic inclusive, goes on simultaneously 
with the collapse of the imperialistic military system. 
The armies of many millions mobilized by the imperial- 
ists could be kept under only so long as the proletariat 
submitted to the yoke of the bourgeoisie. The break- 



APPENDICES 361 

down of national unity means the inevitable disintegra- 
tion of the army. This took place first in Russia, and 
then in Germany, and in Austria. The same also is to 
be expected in other imperialist countries. The uprising 
of the peasant against the landlord, of the workmen 
against the capitalist, of both against the monarchic bu- 
reaucracy inevitably leads to the uprising of soldiers 
against officers and in the next step to the sharp division 
between the proletarian and bourgeois elements within 
the army. The imperialistic war which pitted one nation 
against the other has passed, and is passing, into civil 
war which pits class against class. 

The outcry of the bourgeois world against civil war 
and "Red" terror is the most colossal hypocrisy which 
the history of political struggle has known. There would 
not be civil war if cliques of exploiters, who had brought 
humanity to the edge of ruin, would not oppose every 
step forward of the toilers, would not organize conspir- 
acies and murders and would not call in armed assistance 
from outside, in order to maintain or reestablish their 
predatory privileges. Civil war is forced on the working 
class by the latter's mortal enemies. The working class 
must answer blow for blow, unless it renounces itself 
and its own future. Never artificially provoking civil 
war, a Communist Party strives to shorten its duration as 
much as possible, to reduce the number of victims and 
above all to guarantee victory to the proletariat. This 
makes necessary the simultaneous disarming of the bour- 
geoisie, the arming of workmen, and the creation of a 
Communist army to defend the authority of the proleta- 



.362 THE NEW WORLD 

riat and the inviolability of its socialist structure. Such 
Is the "Red" Army of Soviet Russia, which sprang up 
and exists as the bulwark of the conquest of the working 
class against all attacks from within or without. The 
Soviet authority is inseparable from the Soviet state. 

Recognizing the world character of their mission, the 
enlightened workmen from the very first stages of the 
socialist movement worked for its international union. 
The foundation stone for the latter was laid in 1864 in 
London, in the First International. The Franco-Prus- 
sian War, as a result of which sprang up the Germany 
of the Hohenzollerns, destroyed the First International, 
though at the same time it gave rise to the development 
of national workmen's parties. As early as 1889 these 
parties united at the congress in Paris and created the 
Second International. However, the center of gravity 
of the workmen's movement lay then in the field of 
national parliamentary activity. The decades of organi- 
zation and reform work created a whole generation of 
leaders, the majority of whom in words organized the 
program of social revolution, but in actual practice re- 
jected it and became lost in reformism. The opportunis- 
tic character of the leading parties of the Second Inter- 
national was concealed to the very last moment and led 
to the greatest collapse in the history of the world at a 
very moment when revolutionary methods of struggle 
were required of parties of the working class. If the 
War of 1870 dealt a blow to the First International, by 
showing that there was no consolidated force of masses 
behind its social revolutionary programs, in the same 



APPENDICES 363 

way the war of 1914 killed the Second International 
when it showed that behind the powerful organization of 
workmen stood parties who were being converted into 
submissive organs of the bourgeois state. What is said 
here refers not only to the Socialists-Patriots who have 
now clearly and openly gone over to the camp of the 
bourgeoisie and have become the latter's favorite confi- 
dential delegates, mere wooden people and the most re- 
liable executioners of the working class, but also to the 
hazy irresolute tendency of the Center which tries to 
reestablish the Second International, i. e., the narrowest 
opportunism and revolutionary impotence of its directing 
leaders. The Independent Party in Germany, the Ma- 
jority Socialist Party of France, the group of Mensheviki 
of Russia, the Independent Labor Party of England and 
other similar groups in actual fact are trying to establish 
themselves in the place which was occupied before the 
war by the old official parties of the Second International, 
coming forward as before only with ideas of compromise 
and agreement, paralyzing in every way the energy of the 
proletariat, dragging out the crisis, and increasing the 
misery of Europe. 

Brushing aside the half-heartedness, lies, and corrup- 
tion of the obsolete official socialist parties we, Commu- 
nists, uniting in the Third International consider our- 
selves to be the direct successors of the heroic efforts and 
martyrdom of a long series of revolutionary generations, 
from Bebel to Carl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. 
Just as the First International indicated the road of 
future development, and as the Second International 



364 THE NEW WORLD 

gathered together and organized millions of proletarians, 
so the Third International is the International of open 
mass action of revolutionary realization. Socialist criti- 
cism has sufficiently stigmatized the bourgeois world 
order. (This last sentence taken from anoth . transla- 
tion as evidently omitted by printer in text used for this 
translation.) The aim of the International Communist 
Party is to overthrow it, and to raise in its place the 
structure of the socialist order. We call on all workmen 
and workwomen of all countries to unite under the Com- 
munist flag, which is the flag of the first great victories. 

Proletarians of all countries, in the struggle against 
imperialist barbarism, against monarchies, against priv- 
ileged classes, against the bourgeois state and bourgeois 
property (text used here has misprint, but elsewhere 
word is "property"), and against all kinds and form of 
class or national oppression — unite. 

Under the flag of Workmen's Soviets, of the revolu- 
tionary struggle for power and of the dictatorship of the 
proletariat, under the flag of the Third International, 
proletarians of all countries, unite! 

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